Shades of white
by Saphiress
Summary: When Yagyuu's little sister transfers to Hyotei on a full scholarship she is the new object of many curious eyes, and much to her dissapointment Hyotei doesn't have a proper female tennis club
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

Marui sighed. "I can't believe this day actually came."

"I know, I mean we all knew it was coming but…" Kuwahara trailed off.

"It's one thing saying it and another it actually happening," said Yagyuu.

"Like Sanada and Yukimura dating, we all knew it was coming but-" Kirihara's mouth was covered by one of his senpai's hand.

"Third year is going to be horrible without you lil sis," said Yagyuu hugging his year younger sister. She was the gentlemen's sister through and through, same face and side parting only her hair was a shade darker and her eyes had a hint of green within the brown; Niou always teased on how cat like the siblings eyes were.

"Bye Onii-chan," replied Yagyuu Hinata.

"I don't get it, she moves schools and all of a sudden we're all weepy and sad," remarked Niou. "She's not moving houses, just visit her after school."

"You'll need to find someone else to bleach your hair wouldn't you?" Marui pointed out. "And wasn't she going to pierce your left ear for you?" Suddenly Niou grabbed Hinata's wrist.

"Don't you dare leave," he said firmly, Hinata looked at his shocked for a moment then laughed.

"I can't wait to see you get your ears pierce by someone you don't know, she or he is bound to stuff it up and you'll be forever recognised as 'Niou, guy with demented left earlobe'," she said to him.

"Hina-chan, that's not very helpful you know," said Marui. _It's like watching a dog and its owner, the owner always knows what buttons to push._ He shook his head and sighed. _Niou's going to be hopefully mellower this year now that Hinata isn't going to be there accompanying him on his pranks and tricks, there's a fine line between funny and over board and I'm scared he's going to pass that line now that she's leaving._

"Okay, I'm off," said Hinata as she stepped back to glanced at the five Rikkai students standing outside Hyotei's front gates, she laughed, it was too funny that a 15 year old brother felt the need to accompany his 14 year old little sister on her first day at the school she transferred to at the start of the year.

There was no denying that Rikkai was an excellent school but it didn't posses the funds and learning programs Hinata needed if she wanted to become a heart surgeon, she applied for a scholarship near the end of her first year and was now spending the rest of her school life at Hyotei. All the friendships she'd made in her first year at Rikkai were now deemed useless and she'd have to start from scratch one more, one of the many sad points, however on the upside Niou would no longer be there to put confetti and other things in her long hair.

"Your little sister is growing up," said Marui putting an arm around Yagyuu's shoulder. "I still remember our first encounter with her when she was in the sixth grade and came to visit you."

"We took her out to Mackers and Niou fell asleep beside her," continued Kuwahara in the same parenting tone. "She reached for her fanta and the lid popped off and spilt all over Niou's face and hair."

"She was like, 'Uh oh'," Marui chuckled at the memory.

"Uh oh was right, Niou just died his hair silver and the fanta had a bad chemical reaction with his fresh new colour," added Kuwahara. "I remember Niou sitting on our bathroom floor while Hinata redyed his hair for him."

"And friendships were forged," Marui said in a poetic voice. He sniffed and wiped a imaginary tear from the corner of his eye. "She's grown up that one, our little duckling has grown up to be a lovely white swan."

"Black swan, you mean," remarked Niou. "The same colour as her heart." Kuwahara clamped his hand over Niou's mouth.

"For once shut up, we're savouring the moment," he said as Niou struggled against Kuwahara's palm. Yagyuu was looking particularly in thought. "Hey man what's up?"

"Her skirts too short," said Yagyuu watching his little sister walk away. "You know what I'm just going to let down the hem so-"

"Okay, time we go to school," said Marui taking one of Yagyuu's arm.

"Agreed," said Kirihara taking the other, together they dragged Yagyuu away.

**A/N: What do you think? A go or a no? **


	2. Chapter 2

**Shades of White Chapter 2**

Hinata inhaled slowly then exhaled, she repeated the process again and again until she was calm.

"_A gentleman never reveals his emotions."_ Her brother had taught her that, to get through life, you needed a poker face, that was her interpretation of it but it worked.

She sat down in the teachers lounge waiting to be led to her class by the teacher, the man currently in charge of the new transfer students was Sakaki; a music teacher, Hinata took one look at him and knew her was a strange one.

"Yagyuu Hinata?" asked Sakaki, she stood up and picked up her books and tennis bag and followed the man dressed in a brown suit. "Where did you transfer from?" he asked.

"Rikkaidai," she replied, he seemed nice enough, a man with a stick up his arse maybe but nice enough, she had a way with strict teachers so she was confident he wouldn't bite her head off.

"Hmm? A impressive school, their tennis club has won the national title two years in a row I believe, would you by any chance be related to one of the regulars; Yagyuu Hiroshi?" So now he wanted her to give him information on her brother?

"Yes, he's my brother, he was the one who taught me tennis," she said.

"Hmm? Are you a good player?"

"Compared to my brother, no, but I hold my own," she said confidently.

"Then you should consider joining the tennis club."

"But I though Hyotei didn't have a…"

"After school, why don't you meet me at the tennis courts and we'll see what you've got," said Sakaki. "I am the coach of the tennis club, if one has talent and skill they are always welcome." But the moment you lose you're done for.

Hinata nodded politely. "Why not?" The stopped outside one of the classrooms on the third floor.

"Each day had six periods, each going for 50 minutes, recess and lunch totals 90 minutes, here is a map and your timetable," he handed her two rectangular cards. "Welcome to Hyotei, I look forward to seeing you after school then." With that he turned and left, Hinata raised an eyebrow and shook her head as she knocked on the classroom door.

_I hope not all teachers are like that_, she thought to herself, the door opened and there stood a teacher, he too wearing a suit.

"New student?" she nodded. "Come in then and write your name on the blackboard." Hinata picked up the chalk and wrote her name. "Okay, Yagyuu-san, please introduce yourself to the class."

Hinata dropped the chalk and turned around, the class had fewer people than she was used to, yet all students wore brand name watches and diamonds earrings and rings.

_I want to go back to Rikkai_, she moped silently behind her poker face, she was already missing Kirihara and his terrible jokes and Marui visiting her with piece of cake. "Hello, my name's Yagyuu Hinata and I was born in September," she began, she inhaled. "Well, I like to cook, read and play tennis…" She held her breath and waited for the rich brats smug remarks. "…Any questions?"

A male with curly silver haired raised his hand. "What style of tennis?" he asked, sounding honestly curious.

"Net play," she replied. "I specialize in doubles and attacking," most her tennis was derived from Marui's teaching when he was high on sugar, although she couldn't perform the genius's techniques she gave him a run for his money with her own.

"Ehh!" remarked the silver hair. "Western or eastern grip?"

"Both, depending on the situation I switch," said Hinata.

"Since you two seem to get along well," interrupted the teacher. "Yagyuu-san, why don't you sit beside Ootori-kun?" Hinata nodded and walked down the classroom to the back beside Ootori, she could have sworn a girl glared at her.

"Hello," he greeted. "I'm Ootori Choutaro; it's a pleasure to meet you Yagyuu-san."

"Hinata's fine Ootori-kun, whenever someone calls me Yagyuu I think of my brother," said Hinata, Ootori blushed.

"Then please call me Chou-…please call me by my first name as well," he insisted.

"It's nice to meet you Choutaro-kun," she said. _Well, not all rich kids are spoilt after all…_

**A/N: Niou or Ootori? It is a hard choice; then again it depends on your type bad boy or shy boy. Funny, I was listening to Jordin Sparks 'Shy Boy' when writing this.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Shades of white Chapter 3**

"Ahh! Daito-sensei sure can talk," said Hinata as she stretched out her arms. Ootori laughed.

"You'll get use to it," he said as he stretched as well. "I figured out how to fall asleep sitting up during his classes and also-" he picked up his pen and began spinning it around his fingers. "You pick up some extra skills." Hinata picked up her pen and tried but it fell out of her hand, Ootori smiled and leaned forward he picked up the pen and placed it between two fingers. "Try just going left and right," Hinata quickly picked it up. "Use your thumb to add the circular motion," he reached forward and touched her hand, a jolt of electricity went passes through him and he pulled back.

"It's weird isn't it," said Hinata.

"Huh?"

"My hands, they're unusually cold, don't know why though," she explained.

"Oh, y-yeah," said Ootori. "Yeah…I'm not a very good teacher am I?" he asked as Hinata dropped the pen once more.

"Yep," she said trying again. "Then again it's not exactly something you can teach."

* * *

The end of day bell rung, Hinata packed her belongings and picked up her map he eyes skimmed across the tiny writing searching.

"What are you looking for?" asked Ootori.

"Tennis courts," she replied. "And the washroom…"

"Well, the tennis courts are here," Ootori pointed to an unexpectedly large area. "And the washrooms are labelled with the standard girl in a dress." Hinata nodded in understanding as she lifted her tennis bag over her shoulder. "Need I come with you?" She giggled.

"Come with me to the toilet? No thanks," she said. "We'll thank you for helping me about today and I'll see tomorrow then." She waved goodbye.

"Bye," replied Ootori waving back, she was nice and had a pretty smile when she did smile, his fingertips were still pulsing.

* * *

Hinata washed her hands in the sink, the Hyotei Gakuen bathrooms were too much, 10 individual sinks each furnished with several choices of scented and unscented hand washes and instead of a dryers or paper towels there was a small pile of towels.

She dried her hands and picked up her tennis bag, gave her hair a quick brush with her fingers she walked out of the toilets, the smell of perfume was over whelming. She looked down at her map and tried to locate herself to the tennis courts when a small group of females stopped her.

"Hi?" she said._ Great…the fan club, wonder if rich sluts are any worse than the RFC back at Rikkai…probably too scared to chip a nail_.

Hinata was used to being bullied, having a brother known as the 'Gentlemen', a 'second year ace' as a close friend and a 'Genius' and 'Trickster' as acquaintances caused friction between her and the rest of her gender, wasn't her fault that they didn't seem to like her though.

"Stay away from Ootori-sama," said the one in front, her perfectly permed brown hair in pigtails.

"Can't help that, he's been assigned as my partner."

"Then tell the teachers to swap for someone else."

"And risk Choutaro-kun's reputation? What do I tell the teacher?" Hinata said in with her poker face. "Kya!! He tried to rap me?" She imitated the girl's voice.

"You bitch," she snapped her fingers and two girls grabbed Hinata, she reached for her tazer and pepper spray but decided not to and ducked their grip. She then kicked the ground spreading dust and tried to run.

_Don't want to get sued,_ she thought but another girl launched at Hinata. Before she realized what was going on a hand pulled the girl off her, as the dust cleared she recognised the familiar silver hair of the male who helped her up. She smiled as he glared at the girls but wasn't so happy that he wouldn't let go of her, his hand holding her firmly around her waist.

"Hey! A piece of advice, next time your rabies infected minds decide to attack this idiot here," she hit him lightly. "Keep in mind, make a enemy of Hinata and you make a enemy of Rikkai!" The girls scurried all fluster from being yelled at by such a handsome male, he grinned wolfishly at Hinata. "Puri."

"Puri my arse, let me go," she demanded, he did but not without giving her waist a squeeze. "Pev…"

"I'm a healthy hormone driven 15 year old male," he replied in his defence, his hands in the air preparing to defend himself from her punches. Hinata looked at him; Niou was the same as ever, the regrowth was getting obvious but aside from that he was the exact same as when she left Rikkai, all of a sudden a swoop of emotions flooded her, at first she was relived to be free of a sugar addict and a violent tempered classmate but all of a sudden she missed them. "Hey, Heeee-na-chan…you okay?"

Her poker face was breaking as she began to cry. "I want to go back, back to Rikkai…" she sobbed as she covered her eyes with her hand. Niou stood there uncomfortably unsure of what to do; he sighed and warped his arms around her. "Let go of me, I'll get your shirt wet…" she said as she resisted his grip.

"Baaaka, I have spares," he said, she chuckled as she continued to cry. "You came here to Hyotei for a reason right? You left your fan club, brother even pitiful me behind, for what?"

"To become a first class surgeon," said Hinata quietly resting her head against his chest.

"What type of surgeon?"

"Heart surgeon…"

"Why?"

"So I can help other people like they did to me," she whispered her hand unconsciously touched the scar on her chest.

"You have a dream, don't stop chasing it," said Niou. "And _don't_ forget that you promised to to pierce my left ear and dye my hair the cool silver it is now." She laughed lightly and wiped her tears.

"Okay, I'm sorry for breaking down like that," she apologised. "You can let me go now…" Niou instead hugged her tighter.

"I quite like this," he remarked hugging her tightly. Hinata felt Niou hold her tightly; it felt nice when she caught the scent of a female's perfume lingering on his neck.

"Okay, let go now," she warned, Niou didn't listen and earned himself a knee in the stomach. "Why do you never listen?" she asked as Niou sat on the ground clutching his stomach. "And why are you here?"

"Yagyuu was acting all depressed so decided to skip training and drag you back to Rikkai," replied Niou standing up. "Just to prove to the rest you will still visit," he explained.

"Did _you_ miss me?" she asked.

"No," he scoffed. Hinata turned and walked away. "I kid, I kid," he insisted following her. "Where are you going the exit is the other direction, I don't go to this school yet I know it better than you, puri."

Hinata ignored him as she walked towards the tennis courts, hundreds of tennis club members were training, yet all of them male, the only females were the one squealing at a player with a mole under one eye and blue eyes.

"They have more people than our club," remarked Niou looking around, his silver hair and Rikkai uniform caught the attention of the tennis club members and they stared after them as she walked around finally spotting Sakaki she walked towards him when two of the tennis club members stopped her.

"May we help you?" he asked, his hair had a blue tint and round glasses, he had a Osaka accent and tanned skin.

"Before that, _he's_ not welcomed," said a short red haired male glaring at Niou. Niou just shrugged and brushed him off.

"Hina-chan, why are we here?" he asked, she frowned at looked at him.

"_I_ have business her, _you_ followed me senpai," she pointed out.

"Since we're no longer going to the same school don't call me senpai," said Niou.

"Then what?"

"How about Masaharu-sama?" suggested Niou.

"Over my dead body," she replied.

"Masaharu then," said Niou, she was still angry at him and the blood seemingly made her forget he just asked her to call him by his first name.

"Fine," she said indecisively, they both seemed to have forgotten the existence of the two tennis club members as she walked right past them without a second look.

**A/N: *sigh* Niou's a player. What's going to happen next? Review and wait for the next chapter…**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

As Hinata and Niou walked towards Sakaki Niou caught his reflection in the glasses of one of the tennis club members.

"Hiina, you have to dye my hair puri," he noted.

"Bite me," snapped Hinata still pissed.

"Pearl of my heart, you know if you let me I would," teased Niou leaning over her and blowing in her left ear, a chill ran down her spine and she elbowed Niou in the stomach.

"Do that again and it's _your_ pearls I'll be aiming for," warned Hinata.

"I'll keep that in mind," he said grinning.

Many eyes watched him as he walked, voices whispered "Hey isn't that!" and "Rikkai, Kantou number 1 tennis team."

"Your hair is drawing too much attention," scowled Hinata.

"I know, the regrowth is just so-" he cut himself off when she frowned. "That's not what you meant is it?" She shook her head. "Well, I'm actually quite famous you know."

"I know, I also know that you seduced the president of the student council to let me join the tennis club," Hinata pointed out. Niou looked at her with a surprised expression.

"You knew?" he asked. When Niou had recruited Yagyuu to the tennis club from the golf club he learnt of Yagyuu's national level archer younger sister who was also in the student council and archery club. The captain and student council president were not happy that he wanted her in the tennis club, as the tennis club had a ridiculous schedule of training and practice she would have to quit all of her other activities.

Hinata didn't mind leaving the student council but getting her to leave the archery club was harder, Niou tried everything from bribery to blackmail (He'd gotten his hands on a love letter a poor fellow had written to her but it didn't seem to work, she laughed at him and called him a idiot) but nothing convinced her to quit.

In the end it was Yukimura who persuaded her to join, no one knows how or what he did to convince her, although there were bets on it ranging from 'he slept with her' to 'his her type' Niou had betted on the latter, she seemed to have a soft spot for the cute and adorable, a theory proven by Yagyuu's confirmation that her room was filled with plush toys but at the same time confirmed her strange sense of fashion.

When they finally walked across the road of stares, Hinata waited patiently for Sakaki to finish talking to the male with a mole under one eye.

"-aside from that a splendid play as usual Atobe," praised Sakaki. The male named Atobe bowed.

"Thank you very much," a very tall student picked up his bag and the two walked past Niou and Hinata, as he walked past Hinata he winked. Atobe had dark brown hair, a handsome face and an arrogant smirk on his lips, intrigued by his boldness; Hinata smiled at him. A flame of jealousy erupted from Niou's chest.

"Yagyuu-san, excellent timing," said Sakaki as Hinata and Niou walked towards him. "We've just finished, do you have a change of clothes?" asked Sakaki. Hinata nodded.

"Wait, what's going on?" asked Niou looking around, there were at a tennis club, Hinata was removing her tennis racket from her bag, but there was no way, was there? "Wait, so you join their tennis club on your first day but it took us almost a week worth of persuasion for you to join ours?!"

"Meh," she replied. "Can I leave my bag here?" she asked Sakaki who nodded, she removed a bag containing her change of clothes and walked off in the direction of the female changing rooms leaving her racket with Niou.

"May I ask for your name?" asked Sakaki, the way his spoke made Niou think of Yagyuu.

"I'm waiting for Hinata," replied Niou, eyes were staring and for the first time he did not enjoy the attention.

"I can see that," said Sakaki. "But that doesn't answer my question."

"Oh! Ah Niou, Niou Masaharu," replied Niou. "Hi," he added.

"Do you play tennis as well?"

"Yeah, I taught Hinata how to hit the ball when she first picked up the racket." Unlike Yagyuu, Hinata was a hard student to teach, she'd purposely ask pointless questions and miss the ball just to get on Niou's nerves but it didn't mean she was horrible at tennis; she just had a horrible personality. Hinata would be loosing 5 games in a row but then make a come back where her opponent didn't get a single point, horrible personality indeed.

"How long has she played tennis?"

Niou frowned in thought. "One almost two years." There was one thing about the Yagyuu siblings that Niou hated, it wasn't that they were extremely talented and quick learners _that_ Niou could swallow but that one day he could be teaching them how to hit a ball over the net and the next progressed by themselves so much to sometimes even suppress Niou himself in certain aspects, _that_ pissed him off.

"Yagyuu-san will be here for quite some time, you sure you wish to wait?" asked Sakaki, Niou didn't like his tone or his choice of words.

"I'll be fine," he replied.

"Ha, you, fine? I've seen toilets finer than you," remarked Hinata appearing behind him. "Literally," Niou jumped. "Now you know how I feel when you do that to me," she remarked.

"Funny…" before he continued he looked Hinata up down, she wore a simple black t-shirt, a pair of very short shorts, black runners and white socks. Niou had always seen her as a little kid, but seeing her dressed so, made him realise, she was a girl and a very nice looking one at that.

"What?" she asked when Niou didn't speak.

"Nothing, if your brother catches you wearing those shorts he'll rummage through your wardrobe and replace it all with track pants and sweat shirts," remarked Niou. Hinata looked at her outfit self consciously.

"Is it too much? These are the clothes I always wear whenever I go to the local tennis courts, they're easy to move in," she said not wanting to worry her brother.

"No you look fine, you know Yagyuu, he'd try stop you buying a bra if it means stopping you going through puberty," he said with all honestly, she had breast, he'd never noticed until now and they weren't small either, why didn't he ever notice until now? Before she noticed he was staring he looked at her face.

"Ha, why thank you," she snatched her racket from his hands.

"Net, baseliner or all rounder?" asked Sakaki.

"Net," replied Hinata. Sakaki turned to a decent height male with short scruffy brown hair and a cap.

"Shishido, play a match against her," said Sakaki.

"Yes coach," replied Shishido balancing his racket on a finger as he walked to the tennis court.

"You serve first," said Hinata throwing Shishido a tennis ball.

"You asked for it," he replied throwing the ball in the air he served, his movements were slow, as he changed into position to return the ball was already rolling on the ground of his side of the court.

"You let your guard down Shishido!" shouted a short red haired male.

"Shut up!" replied Shishido. "Won't happen again," he threw the ball in the air and served this time moving a lot quicker than before. As Hinata returned the serve Shishido ran to the net and volleyed it over, it bounced twice and rolled on the floor, now she knew one thing he was extremely fast. "Told you, won't happen again." Hinata just shrugged, the game continued with Shishido claiming the first game.

"This isn't much of a match," remarked a tall, blue haired male with round glasses.

"You said it Yuushi, what on earth is the coach thinking? Pitching her against a regular, even if he's a disgraced one," replied the red head.

"Did something happen senpai tachi?" asked Ootori as he walked towards the court.

"Where you been?" asked the red head.

"I had to help the music teacher move the grand piano to the concert stage," replied Ootori. "Why? Did-" his eyes wondered to Hinata and Shishido. "Oshitari-senpai, Mukahi-senpai, why is Hinata-san playing against Shishido-san?"

"You know her?" asked Oshitari.

"Sort of, she just transferred to my form, why are they playing a match?"

"Who knows, ask the coach," replied Mukahi.

Hinata bounced the ball a couple of times before tossing it in the air, unlike a normal serve where the hand that threw the ball would face the server and possess a backspin, she threw the ball with a grip that resembled someone holding a cup letting go of the ball as her hand went down not up. She waited until the wall floated was just above her head before hitting the ball with her racket. The ball looked normal enough but as it bounced the angle of the ball was unusual causing Shishido to miss his sweet spot.

"Do you think it was a fluke senpai?" asked Ootori.

"Don't know," replied Mukahi.

Again and again she served and everything the trajectory of the ball was different.

"1 game all!" shouted the 2nd year referee.

"Seems like we were wrong," noted Oshitari. "Perhaps she more interesting than we thought."


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

Shishido ran across the court with impressive speed as he caught up to the ball, lobbing it over the net and to Hinata's side of the court, it bounced once before Hinata sliced it over the net earning her the point.

"Six games all! 13 point tie breaker!" shouted the referee.

"They're well matched," noted Oshitari.

"Shishido's tennis revolves around his speed and net play, due to his constant need to move around the court he has built up his endurance, in doubles this may be the bases of a flawless combination but in singles…." Hiyoshi didn't need to finish.

"From what we've seen, Hinata's weakness is a fast match," remarked Oshitari. "She is calmly analysing the situation and noting her opponent's weaknesses, both take time and focus to use to its full potential during tennis match. With Shishido's fast and reckless movements she is torn between the two. Although 12 games have past, not one has taken more than 5 to 6 minutes meaning-"

"Both players are attackers, their offence is second to none but their defence is weak," finished Atobe. "Shishido's mistakes and lack of defence capability is made up by Ootori's counter puncher style of tennis, Hinata on the other hand, is without a doubt a singles player. I'd like to see how she intends to win."

"This is taking too long," complained Mukahi jumping up as high as he could before bouncing impatiently.

"To think she could pull this out for so long, pity her natural physical build puts her on a disadvantage," said Oshitari, Mukahi frowned in confusion. "A female's natural stamina is considerably less than that of a male due to the lower percentage of flesh, the amount of sweat they are producing is a sure sign."

_Wait,_ thought Atobe._ Sweat isn't a sure sign of any such thing, true she has perspired more than Shishido but the amount of sweat she has produced is within range of someone doing through warm up…no…she wouldn't? She couldn't have?_

Niou ginned as he watched._ Hinata and her horrid habits of toying with her food, such an excellent actress as well, well worth my endless hours tutoring her in the art of trickery._ As they say, like teacher, like student.

Hinata wiped away the water she had accidently spilt on herself while taking a drink from her bottle, the water patches on her shirt gave her the idea, as she wore black it was harder to identify the source of perspiration.

Throwing aside the towel she walked back onto the court, watching closely as Shishido served she noticed how his wrist always twisted when he hit a straight, he served the ball, she hit the ball with a high spinning slice, it hit the net and instead of continuing to the other side of the court the ball rolled down the net earning her the point.

"To have such control at this point of the game," Oshitari eyes widened in surprise." She didn't not return those balls because she couldn't catch up to them, she let them pass, conserving even the tiniest bit of energy-"

"And gradually those tiny bits build up," said Atobe. "Shishido underestimated his opponent, no; she fooled all of us, what an interesting find, Yagyuu Hinata."

* * *

"Game and match! Yagyuu 7 games to 6!" shouted the referee, Shishido and Hinata walked to the net and shook hands.

"Not bad," noted Shishido.

"You two," replied Hinata. Wiping her face with another towel Hinata sat down on the coach's bench.

"Not bad," said Niou walking towards her, leaning forward he sniffed her neck.

"What are you doing?"

"You smell surprisingly clean for someone who sweated as much as you did," explained Niou. Hinata grinned reaching into her bag and spraying herself with deodarant.

"How long did you know?"

"From the start I knew you'd pull a stunt like that, it was only until the 4th game I noticed you did," replied Niou. "You have graduated my dear student."

"Thank you oh wiseass sen…"A suddeny jab of pain stabbed Hinata, she clutched her chest as her breathing grew heavy, quickly it began sounding like wind passing through a tiny opening, pain went and came with every breath.

"Hinata?" asked Niou. Hinata quickly rummaged through her bag but her arms grew weak, attempting to stand her knees gave way and she fell to the ground.

"She okay?" asked Oshitari hurrying towards them when she saw her fall, Hinata's left arm was trembling.

"Where is it?" asked Niou throwing things out of her bag as he searched.

"Is something wrong?" asked Ootori, Atobe noticed the commotion and kept a close eye but stayed away, Oshitari placed a hand to her forehead.

"I think she has a fever."

"No shit, she just spent over an hour running around the court," rebutted Mukahi.

"God damn it! All of you! Just shut up!" shouted Niou, the needless chatter quietened. Hinata was clutching her chest in pain as she in haled and exhaled slowly; her breathing was uneven and unsteady.

Niou placed a hand on her shoulder and brushed aside the hair from her face. "Hinata, Cyclops, where is it?"

Hinata breathed in and out a few times before whispering. "Wallet." Niou dug into her belongings once more and pulled out her wallet, inside was a flat white casing, Niou took Hinata's bottle and washed his hand before dropping two of the tablets into his hand a popping them into Hinata's mouth, she swallowed with the help of water while Niou removed a syringe from the wallet and broke it from its plastic seal before pressing it into her neck.

"What is that?" asked Oshitari, amazed by Niou's swift movement and skill with the syringe, it wasn't his first time using one.

"Cyclosporine Azathioprine," Hinata answered for Niou before coughing, she took several sips of water before continuing. "Anti rejection drugs," she explained to their confused expressions. "Niou-senpai can never pronounce it so he calls them Cyclops."

"Masaharu," said Niou frowning.

"Huh?"

"I _told_ you to call me Masaharu."

"Okay, okay, fine," replied Hinata standing up, she stumbled slightly but managed on her own.

"Anti-rejection drugs?" asked Mukahi.

"I had a heart transplant when I was about 11," she explained.

"Oh!" Mukahi took a few moments to process the information. "You have someone else's heart in you then?"

"Mukahi-senpai," said Ootori cautioning him.

"No, it's fine, basically yeah, I have someone else's heart inside me," said Hinata.

"Cool," remarked Mukahi. Niou grinned.

"What?"

"Do you know how many inappropriate jokes I could make from that phrase," he smirked before returning his expression as sober as possible. "But I won't, thanks to some person's heart beating inside you, you are here, and I am grateful for that." Moments passed before he said. "Aren't you glad I was here? Seeing as it was your first day I doubt the school nurse is in possession of the necessary equipment."

Hinata frowned, he was after something, Niou tilted his head to the side so his ear would face her. "No. No, no, no, I won't say thank you, screw you."

"How about a peck on the cheek then?" he asked. She shook her head.

"Why is it always the same routine? Why can't you be nice without expecting something in return?"

"Hey! I just saved your life!"

"He gives dense a whole new meaning," whispered Mukahi, Oshitari grinned.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

"…y=mx+c, in order to find the equation of the straight line you first have to find m, m being the gradient meaning you search for the rise over run of the equation. To find m you…" The teacher trailed on and on as the class struggled to keep their ears and eyes alert. Even the ever attentive Ootori struggled to disguise a yawn.

He looked out the window, it was such a nice day outside, how he wished he could pick up his racket and play a match, when he redirected his attention back to the classroom he could her a distinct tapping noise. It was three quick taps, three longer ones and three quick ones again, Ootori recognised the message, it was Morse code for SOS. Ootori looked around the classroom to see who it was; Hinata looked like she'd die of boredom, the base of her pen tapping against the table making out another message.

_S-a-v-e-m-e-s-t-o-p_. She tapped before slumping against the desk; Ootori smiled picking up his pen he tapped.

_H-e-s-u-r-e-t-a-l-k-s-a-l-o-t-s-t-o-p_. Hinata's head shot up and she looked at Ootori before tapping.

_M-o-r-s-e-c-o-d-e-i-s-a-d-y-i-n-g-a-r-t-w-h-o-w-o-u-l-d-h-a-v-e-t-h-o-u-g-h-t-y-o-u-w-o-u-l-d-k-n-o-w-i-t-t-o-o-s-t-o-p_. They exchanged smiled, remembering the Morse code chart he tapped.

_L-i-k-e-i-s-a-i-d-b-e-f-o-r-e-w-h-e-n-b-o-r-e-d-y-o-u-l-e-a-r-n-m-a-n-y-k-n-e-w-t-h-i-n-g-s-s-t-o-p._

_Y-o-u-s-p-e-l-t-n-e-w-w-r-o-n-g-s-t-o-p._ She tapped back, she laughed quietly as he turned red, English was never his best subject.

* * *

"Favourite movie?" asked Ootori as he and Hinata sat around her desk eating lunch; Ootori's cook had made him a three course crab and egg noodle lunchbox while Hinata's brother Yagyuu had made her a 10 layer pancake stake with maple syrup and whip cream his attempted bribe to stop her from joining the tennis club, Hinata guessed he intended to make her so full she couldn't move.

Hinata frowned in though and bit down on her fork. "Umm….currently…Underworld," she replied.

"I've seen that, I had to close my eyes for half the movie," said Ootori, he didn't like the idea of Vampire and Werewolves fighting in an underground subway.

"Okay, what's _your_ favourite then?"

"Hmm…Notebook," he said, Hinata snorted. "What?"

"Romance, let me guess, you cried at the end?" asked Hinata grinned, Ootori looked at her surprised.

"What's wrong with that?" he asked. Hinata put down her knife and fork and looked at him, was he kidding?

"Aww," she reached forward and pinched his cheek. "Aren't you cute? So honest as well. I once had a puppy that was just like you," she noted thinking of her white golden retriever. "He always wagged its tail, always, he liked to press himself against the tiles and stay like that, I once stepped on him while he was imitating a rug and he still wagged his tail at me…dumb dog," she sighed and shook her head. "Despite how thin and rat like the tail was it hurt whenever it hit me, then Hiro-niichan had to go and discover he was allergic to dogs." She pouted. "Baka Ani." She smiled and let go when it was turning red. Ootori looked down at his food, the rest of his face turning the same colour.

"Did he have a name?" asked Ootori.

"Wag," replied Hinata. Ootori laughed, what type of name was 'Wag'.

"What type of name is that?"

"Well, he wagged his tail…a lot," replied Hinata, Ootori continued to chuckle. "Come on, I was 5! My mother wanted to name him Daddy because his fur was the same colour as my father's hair." This only made Ootori laugh harder, Hinata sighed and continued to eat while ignoring Ootori.

Hinata was a strange person, she laughed when she wanted to, got angry when she wanted to and Ootori bet she also cried whenever she wanted to. She was so full of emotion and life, Ootori was almost envious.

"Starring contest?" asked Hinata noticing him gawk at her.

"Huh?" Ootori returned to Earth.

"Sure, but I'm really bad at this game."

"Is that so?" He leaned forward and looked into her eyes, she did the same but barely seconds passed before she began to laugh and blinked.

"Told you," she giggled, Ootori laughed with her. Hinata was easy to be around, although he had to be careful not to anger her, he still remembered what happened to Niou the day before after her match against Shishido.

"Neh, Hinata-san, how has Sakaki-sensei organised for your training sessions?" asked Ootori.

"Still not sure, I saw him bring out that automatic ball machine though, he had the speed altered to 200km/hour, I _really_ hope that's not for me," replied Hinata. "Well, he'll figure something out; I bet he's not just a music teacher." Ootori nodded in agreement, everyone always doubted the _just_.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

"2 more to go!" said Ootori as he watched Hinata stand vulnerably on the court with a lethally speeded tennis ball machine pointed at her. When the machine spat its 299th ball he closed his eyes and looked away unable to watch, at the start Hinata had returned every ball with ease but by the time it reached 200 she was exhausted. To keep up with the ball put a tremendous strain on her eyes, arms and legs, several times she missed and the ball struck a part of her body. To date she had two bruises on her chest, three on her shoulders, four on her arms and still counting.

Hinata raised her arm and returned the ball, exhaustion had made her aim weak but it still landed perfectly in the singles court.

"1 more!" shouted Ootori looking again when she heard her hit the ball, this was worse than serving to Shishido, for one the machine was ruthless and for another it spat out a ball every ten seconds wether she was ready or not which resulted in her darkening bruises.

The machine spat out its final ball and once more Hinata returned it perfectly, Ootori sighed in relief, she was alive… still.

"You okay?" he asked walking towards her pressing the red off switch of the machine.

"Fine," replied Hinata. "I only wished I didn't spend the last 3000 seconds having a machine spit balls at me." Ootori chuckled and handed her a towel as he knelt beside her. "Thanks," she said wiping her face.

"So, I'm alive, you're…kinda alive, how about we get something to eat after this nightmare?" asked Ootori. The day before he'd asked Shishido for a pickup line or something to ask Hinata on a date with, this was the best out of all his suggestions.

"Umm…sure?" replied Hinata. Ootori's heart suddenly felt warm. "We could ask Shishido-senpai if he wants to come," she added. Ootori's heart went cold.

"Huh?"

"You know the more the-" suddenly something behind Ootori caught her attention. "Choutaro-kun, behind you." Ootori quickly turned around to the machine was not turned off, it threw another ball in their direction, out of pure reflex Ootori grabbed Hinata's racket and shielded his face. The ball span around and around on the racket before falling to the ground.

"I just lost ten years," said Hinata breaking the tense silence. Ootori laughed wearily and nodded in agreement. What happened? He was sure to have turned off the machine, why did it still fire? He stood up and hurried to the machine turning it off before it could fire again. Ootori returned Hinata her racket. "Thanks," she said standing up and walking away. "Tea."

"Hmm?" Ootori stood up.

"I want to eat at a place that serves tea and cakes," said Hinata. "I'll meet you at the front gate in half an hour?"

"Sure, what about Shishido-san?"

"He can come some other time," replied Hinata before turning around and running to the lockers.

Ootori felt his face go red.

* * *

"…Like a broken piece of string that has disappeared in a sea of people, my eyes have finally lost sight of your face. Just wait a while desperately waiting for a shooting star to appear. If wishes really do come true. Can love really be forever?" sang Hinata as she walked to her locker. Unknown to many the female tennis club actually had lockers, the 8 large steel doors in the girls changing room many believed to be storage units were actually for the female tennis club.

Opening the door to get her sports gear (she kept her uniform elsewhere, didn't trust the fan club enough to leave them in the locker) she discovered someone had drawn over her Black Country road bag in white marker. She sighed; she knew this was going to happen. Just like the time she started at Rikkai, it only ended when she joined the tennis club and Yukimura brought her under his wing, since then no one had dared touch her….until now where Yukimura's influence was so far away.

She sighed, walking towards the door which kept the fire hose behind it, she opened the red door and removed her uniform, it at least. was untouched. This was going to be a long _long_ year. On the other hand, her bag looked pretty cool.

* * *

"Sorry to keep you wait-" began Hinata hurrying to the front gate to Ootori, but Ootori was not waiting for her, instead he was breaking apart a fight between her favourite silver haired trickster and a grass like brown haired male who she recognised to be Shishido Ryo, so far the only other regular aside from Ootori to have accepted her.

She sighed; she'd been doing that a lot recently; and hurried to the scene of the crime. Kicking Niou just below the rib cage and in the kidney he stumbled back, at the same time giving Shishido a good strong wack on the collar bone, it wouldn't hurt him, just push him back.

"Oww," complained Niou as he landed on the concrete floor. "The hell was that for Hiiina!?" he demanded without even needing to look at her to know who had hit him. Yagyuu would just pull him back while Hinata kicked him, not at what he initially thought was a man's weak spot but just below the ribcage where all the soft tissue resided, it hurt more than he expected and while his privates would stop paining him after an hour or so, the kick in the rib hurt for the next week or so especially when he ate. She found every excuse possible to kick him there, every, excuse.

"For causing a ruckus outside my school," replied Hinata.

"I wasn't even the first to act," rebutted Niou. Hinata snorted, she highly doubted that.

"He's telling the truth," said Ootori helping Shishido up. "They two…had conflicted opinions-" as polite as ever "-and Shishido-san hit him."

"Oh," said Hinata turning to Niou she held out a hand and helped him up. "Sorry about that then."

"Is what she says," muttered Niou in an exaggerated low and sad voice, but with wicked humour he said cheerfully. "Oh well!" He put an arm over her shoulder for once knowing she wouldn't hit him in any way.

Ootori felt an ice blade pierce through him as he watched.

"Choutaro-kun," said Hinata gaining his attention.

"Yes?"

"Sorry, but could we reschedule?" she asked. "It's just if I don't get him," she poked Niou. "Back to his tamer I'll end up loosing my head as well for not casting a net over him."

"Oh! Yeah, sure, it's fine," said Ootori, but his heart said something different.

"Well," Hinata took hold of Niou's arm. "Bye, and sorry."

"Yeah, bye," replied Ootori watching Hinata leave.

"So why were you fighting?" asked Hinata, Niou shrugged.

"I said this was a second rate school for coming second last year and the year before that," replied Niou, Hinata pinched him. "Ow! Hey! I wasn't the one who landed the first blow!"

"Yeah, but you provoked it," said Hinata. "Come on."

"Where are we going?"

_To Sanada-senpai so he can muzzle you_, thought Hinata. "I feel like visiting some old teammates."


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

Hinata sighed as she looked down at the torn text book on the floor, looking around, she was alone in the classroom, bullies were such despicable things, lucky enough for her she learnt how to deal with them.

Putting on a pair of latex gloves she picked up the book and returned it to its owner, a classmate who sat across the room from her whom she didn't know the name. Then, reaching into the base of her bag she unzipped the false bottom and took out her text and exercise books.

She still couldn't believe they fell for it though, she had hid her books below the false bottom of her bag and then grabbed a random stranger's book and placed it on top, when they destroyed the decoy books she returned them to the owner's bag and her books were still in prestige condition.

She smiled at their foolishness, how fun was it to play in a scenario with people dangling on a string like a puppet, if her assumptions were correct, the owner of the books which was destroyed would report it, they'd search it for fingerprints and they'd catch the person who did it without her even lifting a finger.

It was exactly how she survived her first year at Rikkai, until of course Yukimura found out and put a stop to it, the rest of the year was unexpectedly smooth and boring compared to the beginning. She'd begun to realise, messing with someone's life was fun. Three suspensions and one expelled and now still counting.

* * *

"Neh! Hinata-san," said Ootori leaning over her desk.

"Hmm?" Hinata looked up from her book.

"I've been thinking, you know that tea and cake we never got to try, how about today after school?" asked Ootori.

"Sure, but what about tennis club training?" questioned Hinata.

"I've already asked for the day off, for the both of us," replied Ootori. Hinata smiled.

"Meet you at the front of the school at around 4:00?"

"Absolutely." Ootori looked so cheerful as he walked away Hinata couldn't help but laugh quietly but when she met the eyes of one of her female classmates the smile disappeared and replaced with a sigh, she was going to pay for saying yes, Rabid fan club style. She'd need to finish this quickly if she was to meet Ootori looking as if nothing had happened.

* * *

"Bitch!" shouted a Hyotei female student as she pushed Hinata into the wall knocking her head against the bricks, blood trickled down her head.

"How dare you!" shouted another digging her heel into Hinata's foot, she kept her poker face on as she endured, the Rikkai fan cub weren't afraid to break nail unlike these girls, one ruffle of the hair and they'd squeal. A third grabbed her hair and held a knife under her neck.

"You stay away from Ootori-sama," she warned Hinata. "You hear me?" she threatened. "Unless you don't want that pretty face of yours all cut up and broken, you'll heed my advice."

_Man _were these girls stupid, Hinata smiled. The three looked at her as if looking at a crazy person until she nudged to the cameras hidden around the area. Within Hyotei there was only one location where you could attack someone without being disturbed and the rest of the school not noticing, it was obvious that they'd drag her to this here.

She pushed away the knife from her throat. "You may be rich but guess what?" she looked them in the eyes. "I own your ass now."

"Hey!" exclaimed a familiar male voice. "What are you doing there?!" he demanded, the three girls ran as quickly as they could before he could see their faces, Hinata was dizzy and unable to move. "Hey you, you okay?" asked the voice as she felt a shadow cast over her.

She sighed and stood up but stumbled; he caught her and held her steady. "Thanks, but I'm fine, I just feel a bit ill." She said yanking her arm from his grip; He was very tall; the sunlight behind him shadowed his face.

"That's no way to speak to me," rebutted the male, Hinata cursed, of all people, why did _he_ have to interfere? Why did the captain of the Hyotei tennis club have to interfere?

"Well sorry," said Hinata her eyesight was clearing and the ringing faded. "But really, I'm fine." She yelped as Atobe scooped her into his arms.

"No, your bleeding is what you are," he replied. "I'm taking you to the nurse's office."

"I'm _fine_," she insisted hating the current feeling of weakness. "Dizzy yes, wait, I'm bleeding?" Her hand touched her neck, her hands now red with blood.

"How long has this been happening?" asked Atobe. Hinata considered telling a lie but judging from his personality he probably wouldn't be fooled.

"Since I got here," she answered.

"Even after you joined the tennis club?"

"Especially after I joined," she replied. "These rich crazy people are just so…crazy…" she trailed off; it must have been the blow to the head. "Neh, Baka Buchou, what time is it?"

_Baka Buchou?_ Thought Atobe, he let it slide this once; she hit her head against a brick wall after all. "3:40."

"I need to go," said Hinata struggling in Atobe's grip.

"Baka! You hit you head, what if you have concussion?"

"You're such a fuss pot Onii-chan," replied Hinata she stoped struggling and fell back against his should. "Onii-chan, why did you have to be allergic to dogs?" she murmured thinking of Yagyuu as she drifted to sleep. Atobe looked at the sleeping girl in his arms with a biwildered expression.

"Onii-chan?"

* * *

"Just leave her there," said the nurse showing Atobe a bed, he placed the sleeping Hinata down on it and covered her with a sheet.

"_Onii-chan!" a female no older than 10 or 12 dressed in a pale blue dress with a hospital band on her wrist ran across the garden towards him. "Onii-chan! Neh! Let's get a puppy! A big _big_ puppy!" She said spreading her arms out._

Atobe looked at Hinata, they were alike, in terms of appearance and personality, they were so similar.

"_Neh! Teach me how to play tennis Onegai Kei-niichan!!" asked his younger sister holding his tennis racket in her arms. "I want to learn how to play!"_

"Will she be alright?" he asked the nurse walking across the room.

"She's suffering from mild concussion, I'll clean the cuts and with some sleep she'll be good to go in minutes," replied the nurse removing a glass bottle of disinfectant from the cupboard. "You can go back to club activities Atobe-dono."

"No, I'll stay," replied Atobe sitting on the chair by the bed.

"_Hinata! You should get down from there!" shouted a Yagyuu Hiroshi no older than 10._

"_Just a little more," replied a young Hinata climbing up a tree and reaching for her hat. "Almost got it!" Just as her hand touched it her foot slipped and she fell backwards._

_When she opened her eyes she was lying in a hospital bed with bandages around her head and her brother sitting on a stool beside her holding her hand._

"_Onii-chan," she said softly, he smiled in relief._

Hinata opened her eyes, the familiar scent of disinfectant and the white colour scheme, sitting beside the bed was a tall figure. "Onii-chan?" she whispered, but as her vision cleared she realised it wasn't her brother, but Atobe.

"You're up," he remarked.

"Where arm I?" she asked.

"Nurse's office," he replied. "You okay?"

"I've got a headache," she muttered, she could feel the blood rushing past her ears. "Time?"

"4:10," replied Atobe checking his watch.

"Shit!" cursed Hinata sitting up.

* * *

Ootori checked his watch, where was she? But Hinata did say _around_ 4 so she didn't necessarily mean exactly on 4, but still, where was she?

"Choutaro-kun!" said Hinata running towards him, her bag still unzipped. "I'm sorry I'm late, I ran into some…trouble."

"It's fine," replied Ootori just glad she came. "Shall we go?"

"Sure," replied Hinata. Just as they were about to leave the quiet sophomore Kabaji walked towards them and blocked their path. "Hi?"

"Usu," replied Kabaji, he pointed in the direction of the tennis court.

"I think he wants us to follow him," said Ootori.

"Should we?" asked Hinata, Ootori nodded. They followed Kabaji to the Hyotei tennis club tennis courts where the regulars, second-regulars, sub-regulars, and non-regulars were training. There were so many ranks within the tennis club.

"There you are," said Atobe walking toward them. "You," he grabbed Hinata's wrist and dragged her across the court. "Listen up!" he shouted, silence echoed throughout the club as they waited and listened to what he had to say. "From this moment forward, Yagyuu Hinata shall be my girlfriend! Anyone who lays _a finger_ on her shall expect severe punishment!"

_What the?_ Thought Hinata, what brought this on? Her breathing grew heavy, the feeling of someone gripping her heart in their hands, he airway narrowed as she tried to swallow, her knees gave way.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

Niou sighed as he walked down the pathway, his tennis bag over one shoulder and Hinata's white leather and gold belt shaped bracelet in the other hand, she had left it in the tennis club regular changing room when she last visited. Just thinking about it made his joints ache, that bitch, she set him up; he couldn't sit down properly for days after what Yukimura put him through (Sanada slapped him, twice) just thinking about it sent shivers down his spine.

Niou still couldn't understand why they couldn't have just given the bracelet to Yagyuu so he could give it to his sister, but it was then he remember when Yagyuu admitted something he'd kept secret for quite some time.

"_Hinata, she, she's no longer living under the same roof as me," said the gentlemen._

"_What? Don't tell me your dad divorced…again?" Kuwahara added, Hinata and Yagyuu were half siblings from their father's first and third marriage. He was quite the charmer and both Yagyuu and Hinata inherited his good looks but unlike his son, his father was more of a player than a gentleman. Many times had the regulars commented on this, when a serial killer's wife ended up killing the serial killer, they sat around Yagyuu's television watching it on the news when Marui remarked._

"_How would it feel to wake up and discover you're sleeping next to a monster, the poor woman and the children..."_

"_Happens to my father all the time," stated Hinata._

"_Usually we'd just move," added Yagyuu._

_The thought of the divorce was well within understandable but the thought of their father being separated from his children was unbelievable._

"_No, well yes but no, that's not why," said Yagyuu. "Hinata she's living in the hospital right now."_

"_Why?" asked Marui._

"_She, well, you know of her heart transplant right?" They all nodded while Niou suppressed the smug remark that was on the tip of his tongue. "It seems due to the fact that she was born with her heart on the right side of her body, it was weak and unable to function, even with the transplant it stayed on her right and recently it seems a hole had opened up around the aorta where the heart was joined."_

"_What does that mean?" asked Kirihara, like the rest of them he was very close to Hinata, more so in fact as she tutored him in many subjects including English, he now knew a unlimited number of swear words in many languages thanks to her and Niou, although the rest thought it was a waste of time they were also very impressed, especially when he cursed in five languages when he lost a match._

"_Remember that month when we told you she had gone back to England to visit her mother who was ill?" asked Yagyuu, they nodded. They was shocked, not at the fact they she did not actually visit her mother, but the fact the gentleman had lied._

"_Will she be alright?" asked Yanagi the first among the three demons to speak._

"_The operation was successful and father brought her that ice cream machine, crepe pan and many other things for her that she always wanted with the money we got from the compensation money," continued Yagyuu. "Currently she's still healing, requiring regular doses of anti-rejection pills and injections for now, when the hole heals she'll be fine…hopefully…"_

_Silence passed over them._

"_You bastard," exclaimed Niou punching Yagyuu in the face, Kuwahara and Yanagi pulled him away from Yagyuu as he continued to fight and struggle in their grip. Sanada walked over and slapped him across the face._

"_Calm down you fool," said Sanada firmly. "Hinata-san's illness in not his fault-"_

"_I know that!" shouted Niou. "I know that already! Despite being ill she's always doing her best, to stop Yagyuu, to stop me from worrying! Punching you wouldn't have helped that cause! But, but… didn't you at least consider telling _me_ the truth! Didn't you think that my feeling would be hurt for lying to me! How long have we been doubles partners? How long have I known the two of you? Didn't you at least consider I'd want to help? Didn't you at least consider tell _me_ the truth!?"_

"_Calm down Niou," said Sanada. Niou swallowed, he yanked his arms from Yanagi and Kuwahara's grip and stormed out the door._

"_Wait!" said Yagyuu, Niou stopped in his tracks. "I wanted to tell at least you, but Hinata, she begged me to keep it a secret…from everyone." Niou inhaled and exhaled slowly, calming himself down before replying._

"_As usual weak against Hina, you sister complex sissy." With that he walked out the door._

Three months, it had been three months since her operation and two months since that incident, yet why was he still pissed? He gripped the bracelet, they'd drawn straws to see who would have to return the bracelet, even Yagyuu didn't want the task, not after what happened to Niou but as usual, Niou drew the short straw...why did that always happen? Not that he was complaining, pissing Hinata off was fun even thought the karma wasn't.

He tossed it in the air, almost dropping it before catching it at the last moment, god knows what Hinata would do to him if he scratched it, he'd probably pin the blame on Marui or Kuwahara.

Just as he walked towards the tennis court, he noticed a large crowd gathered at the centre court, at first he looked with mere curiosity but when he noticed it was Hinata on the floor he pushed though to the centre.

"Hinata, hey Hinata-san, are you okay?" asked a very worried baby faced male with curly silver hair.

"I can't hear a heart beat," said a blue haired male his ear millimetres from the left side of her chest.

"What!?" gasped a short red head. "Is she dead?"

"Damn it, stupid rich bastards," muttered Niou pushing through her heart was on her right not her left so of course you wouldn't hear a heart beat, he knelt down beside her and knocked the blue haired male aside. Niou reached into his bag and pulled out a small flat rectangular metal box, opening it he pulled out a syringe. He flicked the top of the vile with his finger to shake out the bubbles he opened a sterilised tissue and wiped her neck pressing the needle into her neck just below the jaw.

Since the last incident he'd begun carrying a dose of the anti-rejection drug Cyclosporine Azathioprine with him at all times. "Why are you always causing trouble?" he asked her not expecting an answer, her eyes closed, she'd fallen unconscious due to the lack of blood to her brain, judging from her breathing pattern she had been dangerously close to suffering from a stroke.

"What the hell were you doing!?" he demanded the people standing around and starring. "She could have died and here you are acting as if it was mere entertainment!"

"We didn't know what to do," said the silver haired male, ashamed. "We sent for a nurse but she still hasn't arrived."

"What the hell you think you're doing holding my girlfriend like that?" demanded a brown haired male with a mole under one blue eye.

"Ha! Funny, since when did Hiina start dating a snobbish monkey who doesn't even know what to do when her heart begins to fail!" rebutted Niou lifting Hinata into his arms. "If you want to help, at least tell me where the Nurse's office is?"

* * *

"Twice in one day," tutted the nurse as she pulled the white curtain around Hinata's bed closed.

"Will she be alright?" asked the blue eyed male who Niou now remembered to be Atobe Keigo, captain of the tennis club.

"Yes," replied Niou not looking away from Hinata. Why did she leave? Why did she go to a place where he couldn't protect her? She was like a sister to him…was she really _just_ a sister to him? All this time, maybe it was more that a brother's protective instinct that persuaded him to visit her more than even her real brother. Perhaps she was more that just a sister, but what? Niou couldn't figure out.

"How did you do it? Just stick a needle into her like it was nothing?" asked Atobe.

"I've known her for a long time, at first it was always Yagyuu calling for an adult to help her, and then he started taking lessons in case there were no eligible people who could help. Eventually as it worsened, he'd always stay by her side…just in case, then before you know it one day it's just me and Hiina and no Yagyuu to inject Cyclops into her. I sort of just went with what my body remembered from watching Yagyuu do it so many times, getting rid of all the bubbles, cleaning the area, where to stick the needle."

Atobe wanted to ask 'why were the two of you alone in the first place' but changed his question. "Could you teach me?" he asked. "I…it's just, your more than a 20 minute run away and the nurse here is just for show…so I was just thinking…" Ootori looked at his feet in defeat as he stood outside the curtains; he couldn't win against Atobe, not in tennis not even in love.

"Sure, maybe, I'm not much of a teacher, you're better off taking lessons like Yagyuu did."

"Yeah, maybe."

Hinata stirred, slowly she opened her eyes.

"I feel as if I've been here before," she remarked tiredly looking around the room.

"Not surprised," replied Niou. "Does this knight in shinny armour get a thank you kiss this time?" Hinata chuckled and sat up slowly.

"No, but thank you, trickster with shinny hair," she replied giving him a thank you hug. Niou's heart skiped a beat while Atobe's raced.

"I'll take it."


	10. Chapter 10

**Sorry, I accidently uploaded the draft without the end part.**

_Yeah! 'Shades of white' has hit double digits! Thanks for reading for the past nine chapters and I hope it can survive nine more! And remember to review!_

**Chapter 10**

Hinata walked down the school corridor at a_ just_ slightly above average pace, the sound of echoing footsteps behind her was annoying but not nothing she couldn't ignore. But as time passed her patience grew thin. To be followed was _not_ a pleasant thing. Slowly she walked quicker and quicker and quicker, unless someone was starring at her they wouldn't have notice, but if they were she'd leave them behind unless they wanted to get in trouble for running indoors, both ways were fine with her. For the first few minutes it was a fun game of cat and mouse but within the hour she'd gotten sick and tired of it and turned around to confront them.

"That does it!" she shouted turning around suddenly, the males who followed her almost bumped into her like dominos. "Don't you have a life of your own or anything? LEAVE ME ALONE!"

"B-but, Atobe-bucho…" began one of them, he was a pre-regular on the Hyotei tennis team. Hinata smiled at him.

"Then you better hope he kills you quickly cause if you don't stop, expect yourself to be hanging upside down from Tokyo tower in nothing but your birthday suit," warned Hinata starring them down.

"B-b-but-" Hinata turned her glare to him and he closed his mouth.

"You understand what I'm saying right? Leave…me…alone," she said carefully exaggerating every syllable. "Hear me?" They nodded; she smiled sweetly, her evil intent perfectly hidden. "Now you have 5 second to get out of my sight before I go down to the archery club and bring back a bow and arrow. And let me warn you, I've never missed."

The five Hyotei students stood there with a bewildered expression, Hinata sighed.

"One, two, th-" she needn't continue, they were already running away. She sighed and plastered a friendly dead eyed smile on her face. "Now I think it's time to have a chat with my sweetheart."

* * *

"You call that a return!?" asked Atobe hitting the tennis ball with all his weight, when his opponent foolishly lobed the ball he smirked. "Ore-sama no bigi ni yoi na," he said sending the first smash towards his grip knocking the racquet from his hands, when the ball bounced back he smashed it, earning him the point.

"Game and match! Atobe! 6 games to love!" shouted the referee, Atobe checked his watch, he'd finished the game in just under 5 minutes, a new record but his mood was ruined when he spotted Hinata, his girlfriend of three days and soon to be ex; judging from her expression; he sighed and walked towards the coach's bench where Kabaji stood with his towel.

"Is something wrong?" he asked sitting down.

"Of course," replied Hinata in the same tone, she took the towel from Kabaji and used it to wipe the little sweat on his face, leaning forward she whispered. "I never agreed to be your girlfriend Atobe-san, and I probably never will so unless you want an arrow through that thick skull of yours." Hinata straightened her back and threw the towel at him. "Stay out of my life." With that she turned and left. Atobe grinned as he watched her walk away.

"My dear, I get what I want."

* * *

Hinata combed her long brown hair back with a brush, her fingers moved with precision and experience as she pinned her hair to the back of her head. She wore a Hanbok, Kwaeja (overcoat), Jeon-Dae (belt), and Jeon-Rip; the Hanbok consisted of a Chima (a skirt) and Jeogori (a jacket). The costume colors consisted of red, blue and black representing the military uniform of the Joseon period of Korea. Her mother, unlike Yagyuu Hiroshi's, was of Korean birth making her half Korean and half Japanese, despite not being able to speak a word of her mother's native tongue she learnt several dances from her country, her favorite, the Geom-mu or Sword dance.

Hinata never liked the hassle of putting on the elaborate costume but it just didn't feel right whenever she danced without it, tying a blue ribbon in her hair she put on a long black trench coat and walked to the unused dance studio where she had set up the necessary equipment. Taking off the coat she removed her two swords from inside their pockets it was called a Kal, or replica sword, used in Geom-mu. Three rings, called Kukhwa, were position between the blade and the handle. Those three rings possessed varying sizes, making sounds whenever she danced.

She walked to towards the rows of paper dangling freely from what seemed to look like wooden doorframes, there were six columns, each column possessed ten sheets of A3 paper dangling down from a horizontal pole. Hinata stood between the nearest two of the columns, gripping her swords she began playing the music in her head.

* * *

"I still don't get why we _regulars_ have to go looking for someone," grumbled Mukahi Gakuto as he and Oshitari walked towards the music centre.

"Don't complain Gakuto," soothed Oshitari. "You want to play against Shishido and Ootori don't you?" Mukahi nodded. "Then we have to find Ootori first."

"Fine," grumbled Mukahi. The two looked around the music center to find the missing half of the Silver pair. "Damn it, he's not here," he complained after 5 minutes of searching. "It's like a ghost town here."

"Only the tennis club is foolish-I mean-dedicated enough to practice until," Oshitari checked his watch. "5:45."

"Hey, there's someone here!" remarked Mukahi stumbling across the dance studio where the lights were still lit; he peered inside to see a mass of black, blue and red.

He watched in wonder as the dancer flicked her wristed with impressive speed, she turned around while at the same down bending her knees and straightening them with flawless balance and grace, with every slash of her wrists a sheet of paper split in two and drifted to the wooden floorboards. Oshitari kept his eyes on her hands, she held the sword with enough strength to make the precise cutting motions needed while at the same time she held then lightly enough to keep her movements fluid.

* * *

"Let's go! Let's go!" whined Marui as he dragged Niou across the Hyotei campus, seeing as Niou had been there the most he was safest guide for not getting lost. "Where is she?"

"Yagyuu said she took her Geom-mu costume with her, we'll try the music centre," replied Niou, despite his grades he had a very impressive memory. He navigated his way to his desired destination and walked towards the dance studios, stopping at one where two people he recognised starred into by the door.

"Hello," he grinned. Walking towards them, he starred at what they were starring and grinned when he saw Hinata dancing, she hated it when others watched, but whenever she danced she got so absorbed she was oblivious to her surroundings. "Hello," he repeated greeting the two Hyotei tennis club regulars.

"Gyak!" remarked Mukahi jumping. Marui grinned.

"Hello," said Oshitari nodding. Marui replied with the same gesture. "What is she doing?" he asked.

"Venting her anger," said Marui and Niou in sync.

"Venting her anger?" echoed Oshitari.

"Better the paper than us," said Marui.

"How is she doing it? If you hit a piece of paper it just…flops," said Mukahi.

"Newton's first law of motion," answered Niou. "An object at rest wishes to stay at rest unless a force acts on it-"

"An object in motion wishes to stay in motion unless a force acts on it," finished Oshitari. "I see…"

"I don't," remarked Mukahi.

"Pay more attention during physics then," said Marui grinning. "Or you can youtube Julius Sumner Miller Inertia." Niou smiled as he thought of Miller.

"Crazy man," he grinned thinking of his silver hair.

"If she applied that to tennis," began Oshitari. "Such swift movements could be the basis of a flawless tennis plan…" he frowned in thought. "Her sense of balance, speed, reflexes even grace can be applied to her net play; it may even change her tennis style, turning her into an all-rounder or proper singles player." It'd taken much repetition for Hinata to convince the other regulars she was a doubles player, no one could believe someone could put up with her foul personality on the tennis court.

"What are you getting at?" asked Mukahi.

* * *

Hinata flicked her wrists as the sword slashed through the sheets of thick paper like a sharp blade through butter, as her concentration began to waver she noticed the audience gathered at the door, she dropped one of the sword in surprise.

"Mukahi-senpai! Oshitari-senpai!" she gasped before spotting Niou and Marui grinning at her, furious she picked the sword off the ground and threw it at her former senpais.

"Shit!" swore Niou catching it by the blade between his index and middle finger; he had long been accustomed to having things thrown at him by Hinata and numerous other individuals, Marui wasn't so lucky, the hilt of the sword hit him square in the forehead. "The hell was that for!?"

"What the hell are you doing here?" demanded Hinata storming towards him; her hanbok glided across the wooden floorboards, she crossed her arms when she heard a click sound, turning her head towards Oshitari and Mukahi both they looked away suspiciously. With the back of Hinata's head facing him Niou smiled when he spotted the mobile in Oshitari's hands wishing he'd be present when Hinata ripped him to shreds.

"Hinata-san," said Oshitari his Osaka accent made almost everything he said sound flirtatious. "That dance you just did, what was it called?" he asked politely.

"T-the Geom-mu, sword dance," replied Hinata slightly surprised, it was the first time he addressed her without 'teme', he had even added 'san'.

"You are a net player correct?" asked Oshitari remembering her match against Shishido, both players were brilliant attackers but lacked defence, despite Atobe's words Oshitari knew from the start she was a doubles player being one himself.

"Yes," she replied slightly nervous, of all the regulars the only ones who talked to her were Shishido and Ootori, Atobe as well since his declaration but she was the one who ignored him in that scenario. She was under the impression they looked down on her because she was a girl, that or they just didn't like her, during her time at Rikkai it had been the opposite gender who felt so, most girls just didn't like her or looked down at her seeing Hinata as a parasite who leeched from her brother's fame and protection.

"Have you ever thought to apply your dance to tennis?" questioned Oshitari.

"Pardon?" The honest answer was no.

"The sword dance seems to require an extreme amount of speed, balance and strength; all three are crucial factors in tennis, if you learn to apply your Geom-mu routine to tennis your tennis style will undoubtedly improve."

This hit a nerve with Marui being the one who help choreograph her tennis style. "Is there a problem with her current tennis play?" he demanded confident he would win in any double or singles match against a second class tennis player of a second class tennis club, but he wasn't Niou, he wouldn't say such things aloud.

"Aside from the fact it is completely lacking defence, no, there is nothing wrong with it," replied Oshitari.

"Which is why I've said time and time again I am a doubles player," insisted Hinata.

"Playing doubles will do you no good here at Hyotei, this school is a mere front for child of the wealthy to gather and make alliances, the word_ friend_ does not exist, it's like a ghost used to scare children while only few knew whether it really exists," said Mukahi. "There are only a handful of people who could say they are honesty friends with someone else here."

"That's pathetic," remarked Niou.

"Heh, can _you_ call anyone friend?" asked Marui.

"Well there's Yagyuu, Hiiiina here as well," replied Niou, Marui snorted.

"There is a reason why Hyotei's tennis club's weakness was doubles before Ootori and Shishido paired up, then only Gakuto and I are the only compatible doubles pair," continued Oshitari. "Everyone looks out for themselves, in doubles trust is the most important factor, instead of focusing on the match they worry if the other player will drag them down."

"So you're telling me to change my tennis style?" asked Hinata.

"Indeed," replied Oshitari. Hinata weighed her options, Oshitari was right, this place wasn't Rikkai where Kirihara participated in mixed doubles tournaments with her (surprisingly they made a good pair, Hinata was one of the few people who knew how to poke Kirihara's demon form the right way to make him behave), even if this school possessed the same law of never losing, here at Hyotei, focusing solely doubles was pointless.

"When do I start?"

_**What a way to start the double digits *sigh* -_-**_

** Sorry!**


	11. Chapter 11

_I've been pondering and I didn't like the way this chapter turned out so I redid it hee hee sorry, I'm being fickle aren't I? =)_

**Chapter 11**

_I sat alone, curled up on the bench watching the others run around the cleared grass field, smiling, and having fun… I watched enviously._

"_What's with the sulking pout?" asked a male, his dark hair fell into his silver blue eyes, I smiled weakly. "Okay that just pathetic, if you're going to fake a smile at least do it well." This time I really laughed. "Now you've gone and given away how you feel. Tsk, tsk." I laughed again, what was with him? "So what are you sulking about? Why aren't you running around like the rest of them?"_

_The sadness and envy returned, he realised he'd struck a nerve. "I'm fine," I assured him. I was fine, I had a harebrained; who moved through woman like a shark through water; but loving father, a brother who had all the wits my father lacked, although I rarely saw my mother but she seemed to genuinely care for me. I had the closest thing possible to a loving family. He looked at me with disbelief, he shrugged and as he did I noticed a fading bruise on his arm. "Where'd you get that?" I asked._

"_This? I fell from the monkey bars," he answered sheepishly. "So, you just going to sit there pretending all day?" I bit the inside of my check to suppress what I wanted to say instead I just nodded. He sat down beside me._

"_What are you doing?" I asked._

"_Well since your just going to pretend all day, I might as well teach you how to do it properly. For the first time I wanted to hit someone, he got on my nerves, yet…somehow….maybe, just maybe…_

Hinata opened her eyes, her mind too tired to process what they saw through their area of vision.

"That dream again," she said quietly remembering her encounter with the dark haired and light eyed male at the local park almost five maybe even six years ago. "That boy…jerk."

* * *

"What am I doing again?" Hinata asked Oshitari. He leaned in closer to her as he spoke, although Hinata didn't have any romantic feelings for him, there was no denying his accent was extremely seductive.

"Try applying you geom-mu to your tennis," he said softly. "Just try your best and from there we'll figure something out, okay?"

"Sure," said Hinata although her tone said the exact opposite, he was a strange one, not necessarily in a good way either.

"I can't believe I got stuck with guinea pig duty," complained Mukahi from the other side of the court.

"Think of it as a favour from me," said Oshitari climbing up and sitting on the referee seat.

"I'll be sure to collect," mumbled Mukahi still not happy. "You better make this a good match!" he demanded pointing his racket at Hinata.

_Arrogant snob_, thought Hinata. "Hai," she answered. _So, apply my geom-mu to my tennis, such a simple task, why couldn't he give me a harder task? Like how the __**hell**__ I'm going to do it?_ She bounced the ball in her left hand as she gripped her racket. _It's too early to think_, she complained it wasn't even 7 in the morning when Oshitari appeared at the front of her house to train. _Why did I agree to this? Oh well, what's done is done, no point in whining…_ she threw the ball in the air_._ She hit the ball with her sweet spot on her tennis racket.

* * *

Ootori hid a tired yawn behind his hand as he practiced.

"What's wrong Choutaro? It's not like you to be half asleep at training," noted Shishido.

"Hmm? Oh, it's nothing," replied Ootori. "I just can't sleep well in a new bed."

"So you get that sort of problems huh?"

* * *

"Oi Oshitari," said Atobe walking to the tensai, he leaned against the referee seat.

"Hmm? What Atobe?" His deep voice matching his captain's tone.

"What do you think you're doing? Since when did you take an interest in Hinata-san?" Oshitari raised an eyebrow and shrugged.

"I wonder," he pondered looking away and continued to watch the match.

* * *

"Game Mukahi! 3 games to love!" shouted Oshitari. _What on earth is this? Gakuto's completely dominating this match and it doesn't look like she's got anything planned._ He looked at Hinata as she prepared to receive Mukahi's serve. _Perhaps this was just a waste of time? Oh well, it was entertaining to say the least._

As the ball bounced in Hinata's courts she returned it, her desire to run to the net was unfulfilled as Mukahi was already there, if she tried to advance he'd cut right through her. Hinata sighed. _Defence has never been my strong point but now my offence has been seal I'm stuck,_ the ball bounce at her feet and she returned it to the other side. _This is a waste of time, I'm tired and I'm hungry be cause I skipped breakfast because of this, stupid Osaka guy…and how the hell and I 'suppose to apply my geom-mu to my tennis'? _Mukahi jumped into the air with a back flip and hit the ball._ Okay let's see, the Geom-mu is the balance between speed, pressure and strength, too much strength and pressure and the movement is rigid, too little and the sword flies out of your hands and at Niou's head. If your too quick the paper will split but the movement will look inelegant and forced, influid and if not fast enough the paper just flops…so add that all together and you get…damn it…puzzles is more my brother's thing, I'm an act and regret type of girl…act then regret, let's see where that takes me…_

Hinata's grip on her racket changed, holding it more like a geom-mu sword than anything else she looked at the coming ball, bringing her grip closer to her body she turned to her side and flickered her wrist in a circular motion first towards her than out where it hit the ball, the exact motion as when she cut a piece of paper.

Silence passed.

"Where's the ball?" asked Oshitari looking around when he spotting it, a faint mark was on Mukahi's side of the tennis court which was not there before; it was at a 90 degree angle with net; yet the tennis ball was on Hinata's side of the court. Mukahi was lost for words, his knees trembling. "What happened?"

_Regretting already_, thought Hinata but Mukahi wasn't the only one trembling, as was Hinata.

Hinata almost dropped the racket; she swallowed and ran away from the court.

"Hinata-san!?" exclaimed Atobe about to run only he stopped when he spotted Oshitari jumping down from the referee seat and ran towards his doubles partner.

"Oi Gakuto, pull it together are you okay?" he asked shaking Mukahi gently, Mukahi swallowed hard.

"Neh Yuushi, what was that?" A tear trickled down his cheek; his knees gave way, had Oshitari not been holding onto him he would have fallen to the ground. "The ball, it went straight for my face…and then, and then, I dodged but…why am I still trembling? Neh Yuushi, she's a monster, a demon-"

"Gakuto calm down," insisted Oshitari. "You're just shaken; you'll be fine just-"

"Yuushi," whispered Gakuto. "I saw her smile; she was smiling when she hit the ball, as if she _wanted_ it to hit me." Oshitari and Atobe were lost for words. Atobe looked at the court, the ball had moved so quickly even _he_ had trouble seeing it, but what he did see.

_Mukahi back flipped into the air and returned the ball, suddenly Hinata's stance changed, her grip on the racket loosened and she held it by placing her index finger inside the triangle, holding it by the 'Y' between the body and handle. A smile appearance on her face as she flicked her wrist in a 'C' shape motion, first rotating her racket towards her body through the first half and away during the second, her index finger served as the centre point and lever._

_As she flicked her wrist outwards the ball missed her racket's sweat spot and barely hit the upper frame but the effect was greater than if it was the former, the swift movement of the racket gave the ball a powerful back spin. The ball possessed speed and strength but lacked accuracy, it flew straight for Mukahi's face, he dodged at the last moment. When it hit the ground instead of bouncing it span backwards towards the net, then hopped over the net and back into Hinata's side of the court, the friction caused the smell of burnt rubber in the air._

That technique if harnessed correctly could become a powerful weapon.

* * *

"Hey where'd she go?!" asked one of the Hyotei regulars running through a suburban street, they looked around searching for the run away tennis club member. "Damn it, if we don't find her Atobe will demote us."

"Let's recap, we followed her here and then she turned the corner and then-"

"Vanish."

"What do you think happened?" asked a fourth. "Although I admit I wasn't exactly focused on training but I watched her and Mukahi-senpai play, that last move, after it she just packed up and ran."

"Maybe she's afraid of being yelled at for almost hitting Mukahi-senpai," suggested the first.

"That's you."

"But _I_ didn't see it, nor did anyone I asked, so why?"

"Who knows who cares, we have to find her." The turned a sharp corner when they almost ran into a tall male dressed in a black hakama, there was a small scar just below one eye.

"Ehh, what are you Hyotei rats doing here?" he asked, the way he spoke and acted. He was confident, fearless, disciplined and most of all they recognised him as the current number 1 middle school tennis player.

"I-its Rikkaidai's Sanada," stuttered one.

"Damn it, we were so busy looking for _her_ we stumbled into Rikkai territory," whispered another.

"Get lost," said Sanada, the Hyotei students turned and ran with their tails between their legs. Sanada sighed and entered his home closing the door behind him, walking across the wooden floorboards of his house he opened a sliding door revealing a red eyed Hinata sitting at the veranda starring out at the bamboo water feature being filled with water then collapsing against the stone below it, emptying its content.

Sanada sighed. "What is it you want?" he asked noticing that Hinata's tennis racket sat stuck into the ground of his garden. He sat beside her. "Are you waiting for me to die before telling me?" Hinata didn't even smile at his horrid attempt of humour.

"Out of everyone, I could sit with you and you wouldn't ask any questions, what changed?" she asked.

"Let me guess, something happened and like before you ran here to hide from it?" Hinata flinched at the truth and bluntness of his words.

"You never had any patience for me either," she smiled weakly. Sighing she turned her head and looked at her former senpai. "I'm calling up on that favour you owe me."

* * *

"SHE WHAT?!" demanded Shishido.

"Hush," warned Oshitari as he, Mukahi, Ootori, Atobe and Shishido stood before their coach Sakaki.

"As I just said, I intended for Hinata to move to the boy's tennis team under the new law passed by the JTA to promote gender equality in tennis, but just before I could tell her Yagyuu-san had asked for a month leave from club activities," explained Sakaki.

"Why would she suddenly-?" asked Ootori.

"Which is why I am asking you lot," replied Sakaki. "I've been told an interesting tennis match took place without my supervision." Oshitari and Mukahi exchanged guilty looks.

* * *

"Neh! Hinata-san!" exclaimed Ootori chasing after her as just as she was about to leave the school grounds.

"Is something wrong Choutaro-kun?" she asked.

"Where are you going? And why did you suddenly ask for leave?" questioned Ootori. Hinata looked at him bewildered.

"Is something wrong?"

"You've been acting weird since your match against Mukahi-senpai, are you alright?" Hinata took a few moments before answering.

"I just need a break, that's all," she replied smiling.

"Liar," muttered Ootori. "I can see it in your eyes." Hinata shrugged.

"Believe what you will," she answered.

"What happened? That last move you used, something changed in you…what?" Hinata eyes widened and she looked away.

"I realised a side of myself I never knew I had," she said quietly. "That ball that flew towards Mukahi-senpai's face-"

"It was an accident!" interrupted Ootori, Hinata shook her head.

"That was no accident," one corner of her lip tilted upwards in a crocked grin. "I aimed for his face."

"Hinata," said a low voice, Ootori turned to see a very tall male in the Rikkai middle school uniform.

"Sanada-senpai," greeted Hinata.

"Ready to go?" Hinata nodded, waving goodbye to Ootori she followed Sanada.

"You sure about this?" he asked her, Sanada was almost and entire head taller than Hinata looking down at her, she nodded.

"Yeah, I need help on this and I can't think of a better, stricter person who owes me a favour," replied Hinata.

"Don't say I didn't warn you."

* * *

The full moon shone down from the sky, despite how late into the night it was the candle of Sanada's family dojo was still lit. Hinata kneeled on the wooden floor of the wide open space, two sand bags on both thighs as she moved her arms and flicked her wrists in the movement of the Geom-mu. As she dance one of the sand bags fell off her knee and a wooden stick wacked her on the shoulder, she flinched in pain as Sanada placed the sand bag back on her thigh and she continued. Sweat decorated her forehead as her arms were weighed down by lead weights.

"Another 10 times and we'll move onto footwork," said Sanada. Several skipping ropes were pressed into the earth with the joining string twenty centimetres above the ground; they were all parallel and less than a meter apart from one another. "I'm surprised, I haven't heard you complain once," he remarked but Hinata didn't reply more of, she couldn't hear him, her concentration solely focused on the task in front of her.


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

"Move it!" shouted Sanada. "Marui if you don't bring your endurance up to scratch you won't be playing in the nationals!"

"Hai!" replied the Volley specialist as he wiped his face with a towel.

"Kirihara! What happened to the lead weights I gave you!?" asked the Fukbucho.

"Yikes," muttered Kirihara putting the power wrists back on.

"Doesn't the Fukbucho seem…" began Niou.

"Nicer?" Marui finished for him. "Usually it's 'you won't be playing in the Kantou'."

"And he usually hits me when I don't wear the wrist thingies," added Kirihara.

"He must have found someone else to yell at," guessed the Gentlemen pushing up his glasses. "Who and why are the million yen questions."

"Maybe its Kuwahara-senpai," suggested Kirihara. "I've noticed he's been disappearing a lot, maybe Sanada made him do extra training?"

"No! Jackal would never!" exclaimed Marui highly offended Kirihara would suggest such a thing. "Not without telling me, no, it's something else."

The four regulars stopped and exchanged looks.

"I'm curious," admitted Kirihara.

"After school we follow him?" suggested Niou. Marui nodded while Kirihara grinned, soon all eyes were on the Gentlemen.

"Such act is un-gentlemen behaviour," he said pushing his glasses up again.

"And abandoning your friends isn't?" asked Niou.

"One in, all in," said Marui.

"All for one, one for all," added Kirihara.

"Or in this case, all spying on one and one being spied on by many," remarked Niou earning himself a high five from Marui. Yagyuu sighed.

"Very well then."

* * *

"Hey! Been a while Yagyuu-san!" greeted one of Hinata's former classmates.

"Hey!" She replied. "Have you seen the old Stump?" It was their nickname for Sanada when his back was turned; compliments of Kirihara; Yukimura was Mrs Stump while Yanagi was Squinted Mushroom.

"Try the third floor," he suggested. "Club activities just finished so he might be in the classroom now, anyway we should get together sometime during the holidays?" Hinata smiled.

"Absolutely, a class thing right?" He wanted to say no but he knew of the rumours that Hinata had a crush on the Rikkai middle school tennis club captain and would rather just be friend than risk making her uncomfortable around him.

"Yeah, I'll contact you on the details then."

"Sure, bye." Hinata waved and hurried up the stairs, it had been a while since she left, looking around it all felt so familiar, she missed them, her old classroom, her old classmates, her old seat and most of all her odd old friends. She sniffed, looking around when she finally reached the third floor, the hall was empty, and many students had long gone home, the sun was already setting making the corridor feel so cold, like it was…the end. Hinata snorted, sunsets did that to people. Turning around she decided to go back downstairs when a shoulder bumped into her and pushed her forwards.

"Hiina!"

She felt as if she was falling forever, the sight of the descending stairs grew closer and closer when an arm grabbed her around the waist and fell with her; another wrapped itself around her head shielding it from the ground, she closed her eyes. She felt the softened impact of her body hitting the stairs, her body continued to fall downwards until she hit the bottom midway between the third and second floor.

"Hiina, I'm so sorry I didn't mean to push you," apologized a familiar voice. Hinata opened her eyes to see Niou a few centimetres above her, panic evident on his expression, her breathing quickened.

"I'm fine," she replied weakly, she didn't hit anything vital, Niou's body had prevented that. As the shock faded she realised her tie had loosened and the top few buttons torn off revealing the bruises on her shoulder, chest and neck as well her bra strap, Niou was starring. "Get off!" she demanded pushing him back and sitting up, she tightened her collar around her neck as Niou sat straight beside her. "Thanks, even thought you were the one who pushed me," she said knowing it would distract Niou even if for a few moments.

"I'm sorry," said Niou again but he hadn't been side tracked for long when he said. "Those bruises, where did you get them?"

"I fell," Hinata replied quickly, too quickly, Niou looked at her suspiciously while she looked away, her cheeks grew red.

"Hinata, were you hit by something?" he asked, she didn't answer or look him in the eye. "Hiiina!"

"It's nothing," she repeated. Niou's hands trembled with anger, grabbing her shoulder he forced her to meet his gaze.

"Damn it! Is it really too hard to admit!?" he asked. "It's nothing to be ashamed of! Hell if you need help just ask for god damn it! What wrong with you!? It's not your fault."

Hinata was lost for words. "You lost me at 'It's not your fault'," she said at last.

"You old man is abusing you isn't he?" asked Niou. "Is that why Yagyuu's been acting weird? That's it isn't it? Damn it, if he did this to you then he doesn't deserve to have you living under his roof! My couch is always available, and if that doesn't work _I_ can sleep on the couch and you can have my bed!"

Hinata was both touch and confused at the same time, was that even possible?

"What are you saying?" she asked.

"Listen, I care about you, a lot, and if Yagyuu's not standing up for you then I will, if you're not going to call the cops then I will," he said softly, his voice was so…sincere, it was almost foreign to her. Hinata took a few second to process the overload of information…

"Wait, you think my dad's been, violent to me?" she asked changing the choice of words.

"Isn't he? Don't lie I can see that large bruise on your thigh," Hinata looked down to see her skirt had risen during the fall and revealed a lot more of her legs, quickly she pulled it back down covering her thighs and the bruises. Out of nowhere, Hinata began to laugh. "What?" demanded Niou not at all amused.

"You," she managed to say while she laughed. "I'm just…I don't know, enlightened."

"Huh?" Hinata shook her head.

"I never knew you cared," she said at last with a smile when the laughter died. "Thank you," she added.

"Huh?"

"These," Hinata pulled down her collar slightly to show him the bruise. "My dad didn't hit me, these were, well necessary."

"I'm not following," said Niou frowning slightly. Hinata laughed lightly.

"I wouldn't expect you to, anyway what gave you the idea that I wa-" She froze her smile disappeared, it was as if the missing piece of the jigsaw puzzle had been found, her eyes wide, she looked at Niou. "It can't be," she whispered. Suddenly everything made sense, the sleep overs, why he never wanted to go home and the bruises…the bruises… Hinata looked back on her memories, the clear grass field, the lessons in trickery... "There were no monkey bars," she whispered.

"What?" asked Niou.

"Your father, you mother, the thick make up, she wasn't trying to marry up, she was covering up the bruises she got from your father," she said quietly. Niou froze, how did she know? What gave him away? "When your mother, your brother and you moved out, my father assumed she found a new man, but, you weren't leaving, you were running, running away from your father."

"How…" began Niou. "Since when-?"

"Just now," said Hinata, it all made sense, Yagyuu once commented that Niou never used to wear shorts he also kept his jersey on for as long a possible. "That was why you assumed my father had been abusing me, because your father he abused you when you were young. What about now? Are you mother and you safe from him? And your younger brother…"

Niou didn't say anything for a long time, his expression filled with sorrow, wonder, as if he was asking himself a impossible question, until finally he smiled, lifting up his shirt he revealed several scars on his back and torso. Unconsciously, Hinata reached out and touched them, the scars were faded, extremely old but Niou winced when she touched them, as if they brought back painful memories.

"My old man complained that there was never enough money in the house, while my mother worked, all he did was sleep, watch TV, drink and yell at us. He'd hit my mum, me and Hatsuharu if I didn't direct his attention back to me." Niou Hatsuharu was Niou's younger brother, in his last year at elementary school he was bound for Rikkai middle school next year. "As I got older I began to fight back, but it was helpless, he was taller and stronger than me, but it didn't matter, he stopped hitting mum and concentrated only on me." Niou smiled weakly and pulled his shirt back down, Hinata placed a hand on his arm.

"You should have told us, my father would have gladly let you stay with us, and me even Onii-chan wouldn't have minded."

"I know, but you know me," he grinned at her. "I don't take charity, I just take." Hinata smiled and shook her head. "Last year I grew an extra 20 centimetres and put on quite a bit of muscle, nothing compared to Kuwahara but enough to defend myself," he said proudly.

"And your dad?" asked Hinata. _He's so simple minded, the fool, the idiot…_

"After I kicked him out he got in a bit of trouble with the police and mum wouldn't pay the bail so he got violent, came at us with a bat…" he paused just to draw out the suspense. "Well, let's just say the police came and he was in a spot of trouble." Hinata recognized the true meaning of the phrase.

"How many years?" she asked.

"1 year, got out within a few months on good behaviour but he made some bad friends while in the slammer, he's now doing 10 years, 7 on good behaviour but by then I'd be more than capable of kicking his arse." Hinata just shook her head, the idiot…

"So that's why when you saw the bruises…"

"Yeah, sorry, I should have remembered your old man isn't a drunk like mine," he apologised.

"No but he _is_ a womaniser, and I wouldn't be surprised if one of them came at him with a bat," said Hinata truthfully, Niou laughed lightly and she joined in. "Okay, let's get off this cold hard floor, my arse is getting sore." Niou snorted as he stood up but stumbled and fell forward, on top of Hinata.

"S-sorry," stammered Niou getting up but his earring was caught in Hinata's hair and she gasped in pain when he tried to sit up. "Sorry," he said again. Hinata quickly untangled her hair and Niou stood up. "Eh…sorry about that." He had said sorry more times within the last few minutes then he had the entire of last year.

"Yeah, well bye," replied Hinata getting up and walking down the stairs not once meeting his eyes.

Hinata ran the moment she was certain Niou couldn't see her, her cheeks were flushed; Niou's lips had brushed against her own. She had kissed before, but none of them made her heart beat as fast as it did when Niou had saved her or even close to what had just happened. When her mobile rang she jumped before breaking down into a laugh.

"What's wrong with me?" she asked pulling out her phone. "Hello?"

"Hinata, where are you?" asked the familiar stern voice of Sanada, even without seeing his face she could tell he was frowning.

"At Rikkai, you?"

"I already went home, I though we were meeting here."

"Oh! Okay, I'll be there is a few minutes then, bye." Sanada just hung without a goodbye. "Honestly, he's as bad as a cat."

Niou's eyes followed Hinata as walked down the stairs not once did she look at him, was she angry? Once she was out of sight Niou kicked the wall, he'd ruined it all at the end.

"Damn it," he cursed when his mobile phone rang. "What?" he asked flipping it open and holding it to his ear.

"Where _are_ you!? Sanada's house _now_!" demanded Marui's voice.

"Yeah, yeah," Niou sighed, he'd lost interest in Sanada but seeing as he was the one who cam up with the plan he figured it was better if he went.


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

Hinata stopped outside Sanada's house; taking a deep breath and awaiting her doom she pressed the doorbell.

"Late," was the first thing that came out of her former senpai's mouth.

"Sorry," apologized Hinata stepping inside and taking off her shoes. "What's at the top of the '50 ways to die' list today besides being glared at?" she asked, Sanada brushed aside her remark.

"There," Sanada pointed to a bow and arrow.

"Oh!?" Hinata was expecting two wooden swords to be waiting to be splattered in her blood but it seemed fate had turned in her favour. "Easy!" She was the former ace of Rikkai's archery club before joining the tennis club.

"Is that so?" Sanada tossed four weight bands at her. "Two on each arm." Hinata put them on without saying a word, when she was done she stretched, they were lighter than what she initially thought.

"Where's the target?" she asked walking towards the veranda and looked around the garden.

"Far wall," replied Sanada, Hinata's mouth fell open, it was over 50 meters away double her normal shooting range.

"Monster," she muttered under her breath.

"Try some image training first, picture yourself shooting at the target," said Sanada. Hinata nodded reluctantly and raised her arms imagining a long bow in her hands, immediately she realised why he had instructed her to wear the weights, even with the small amount she had on her arms holding them up for a prolonged period of time would be hard, as time passed they would feel heavier and heavier. Without warning Sanada walked up behind her and adjusted her stance, the weights had a greater effect than she thought.

"Your arms are to tense," stated Sanada gently loosening her shoulders.

"If I don't tense, my arms will drop," rebutted Hinata.

"Your body is completely off angle," added Sanada placing a hand on her stomach and turning her torso slightly before kicking the back of one knee gently to prevent her from locking them. "Honestly, you've gotten rusty; did it not occur to you to continue practicing even after joining the tennis club?" Hinata snorted.

"How could I with our ridiculous training schedule?" she asked while Sanada adjusted her outstretched arm bringing it up to eye level. "You know if anyone else touched me like that I'd kick them in the groin."

"And why am I the exception?" questioned Sanada adjusting her elbow.

"Because you're in love with Seiichi-senpai and when you _accidently_ touch my chest I know it was _actually_ an accident," replied Hinata matter of factly. Sanada actually spotted a grin.

"Just start training," he instructed hitting her back gently with the back of his hand.

* * *

"Where were you!?" demanded Marui as Niou walked slowly towards them, his mind was still in a daze after what had happened.

"School," he replied.

"Ha! Funny, tell one I'd actually believe," snorted Marui. Marui, Yagyuu and Kirihara stood outside their Fukbucho's home waiting for him. "How do we get in? The walls are high and we can't exactly sneak in without him noticing, it Sanada he probably has the ability to hear every word uttered in his domain." Kirihara had the sudden urge to run up to the front door and shout.

"Oi! Fukbucho you son of a bitch! Boil up a kettle of tea cuz I'm coming!"

"So, you're the expert what do we do?"

"Go around back, he always leaves those sliding doors open we'll get a better view there," replied Niou. Marui and Kirihara exchanged looks.

"Why didn't you think of that?" asked Kirihara.

"Me? What about _you _Seaweed head?"

"You're the senpai," rebutted Kirihara.

"Now now children," soothed Yagyuu leading them to the back of Sanada's house. Niou sighed, he should be chasing after Hinata not wasting time spying with a bunch of amateur. Using the weaving pattern in the wooden fence as a leverage they peered over Sanada's fence, the back wall where they stood was far away from the house.

"What is with this house?" whispered Marui. "It's so…so…"

"Sanada-like?" Kirihara finished for him. Marui opened his mouth to say something else but stoped.

"…yeah, for lack of a better word," he agreed.

"Hush someone's coming," said Yagyuu. A female stepped onto the veranda, dressed in the Hyotei uniform she was of Kirihara's height and possessed long black hair, from this distance they couldn't tell who she was.

"Who's she?" Asked Kirihara, just as he spoke Sanada appeared behind her and seemed to have wrapped his arms around her body. Marui's mouth fell open.

"Ha! Can't wait to tell Yukimura that lover boy is cheating on him," smirked Niou. Looking closer Sanada was massaging her neck, his arm reached out to her outstretched hand, it was then he noticed the silver chain bracelet around her wrist. He would recognize that anywhere, it was the very gift all the regulars had pitched in to buy Hinata when she left for Hyotei.

"H-Hinata?" he gasped, he felt as if someone had grabbed his heart and ripped it out of his chest.

"Oh my goodness…" whispered Marui. "This is better than cable."

Niou suddenly felt a rush of air beside him; he turned his head to spot Yagyuu climb over the fence.

"Oi! Yagyuu!" Niou called after him, climbing over as well but just as the four of them hit the ground an arrow flew right past them nicking Niou's shoulder. Red blood began to spread across his white polo shirt.

* * *

"Let me get this straight," said Sanada as the six of them sat on the floors of his home. "You got suspicious because I was being nice, you followed me, you saw Hinata and I and as you jumped down from my fence Niou got struck by one of Hinata's arrows, which by the way hit the target despite the interference. Did I forget anything?"

"Don't forget assuming that we're dating," added Hinata as she dabbed atheistic on Niou's injured shoulder, she shivered at the thought.

"So what was he doing touching you?" demanded Yagyuu. Hinata pointed to the bow and arrow leaning against the wall.

"I hadn't practiced in a long time so I'd gotten rusty, Sanada was correcting my stance," she explained, Niou flinched. "Wuss."

"Hey! This is a _very_ deep wound you know! And whose fault is it that I got it?" remarked Niou.

"Bullshit," replied Hinata. "I've seen paper cuts deeper than this, and I was going to apologise but seeing as it was your fault to begin with, I won't." Niou looked down embarrassed while Hinata began bandaging his shoulder.

"Sorry," he muttered.

"It's fine."

"So, what were you doing here in the first place?" asked Kirihara. Hinata froze.

"Well, Um…."

"She asked me to train her," explained Sanada after a long pause of silence.

"God! Here I thought you'd want to spend less time with the demon," exclaimed Kirihara before hiding behind Marui and Yagyuu from Sanada's glare. Hinata pretended to be focus on bandaging Niou's shoulder.

* * *

"Bye," said Hinata putting on her shoes and walking out the front door.

"Hey! Wait up!" exclaimed Niou, hurriedly putting on his shoes and following her.

"Honestly," muttered Yagyuu preparing to go after them but Marui and Kirihara suddenly grabbed his arm.

"Let's go eat some cake before we got our separate ways!"

Niou walked awkwardly besides Hinata, every time he opened his mouth to speak a tiny voice in his head told him to shut up, why was it that it sounded so much like Kirihara? He did not know…

"Hey," he began. "Well, um…"

"Sorry," said Hinata quietly.

"Huh?"

"Sorry," she repeated this time louder. "I didn't mean to hit you."

"Oh! It's nothing," Niou assured her. "Like you said, paper cut! Paper cut!" She smiled weakly but remained unconvinced. "Hey, so why did you approach Sanada for extra training?" he asked changing the topic. Once more 'Oh!' was all Niou managed after hearing what had happened at Hyotei during her match against Mukahi.

"But I'll tell you the strangest thing," said Hinata. "I have this sudden urge to get stronger, to play…and win. I sound like an idiot don't I?"

"No worse than Akaya," replied Niou smiling. "Wait, you avoided tennis whenever possible last year, that's not fair, why didn't you have this attitude when you were at Rikkai?"

"Meh!"

"Why did you agree to join in the first place? What did Yukimura say?" asked Niou. "He showed you his hidden tattoo that read 'Sanada' or something? Tell you all of Sanada's weaknesses? What? Come one, tell."

"He offered to teach me his tennis style," she answered. "But it was no use, in the end all I managed was the loss of sight and sound, to strip the opponent of touch is_ really_ hard."

"Oh!" It seemed the rumours of Hinata having a crush on Yukimura were false after all. All of a sudden he felt like the idiot.

"Niou-senpai," began Hinata looking off into the distance. "Before, when you said my dance lacked a heart, where do you think it went?"

"Huh?"

"Nothing, never mind."

* * *

"Playing as a member of the male tennis club?" echoed Hinata as she packed her bags for the end of class.

"Yeah, instead of having to play alone, you could play in the Kantou with us," offered Ootori. "The inter gender tennis rule was designed to promote female interest in tennis and-"

"I know," interrupted Hinata. "And improve the level of female tennis players right?"

"Yeah, how'd you-?"

"Be cause I know about, I have for a year now," explained Hinata, in response to Ootori's confused expression she gathered her hair up leaving only her fringe down. "Picture me in the male Rikkai middle school tennis uniform, glasses and a wig." Ootori frowned slightly as he did but the image would not appear.

"I don't see your point," he admitted at last.

"Pitiful but this is what it means by a match," she said but her voice was different, lower, more of a male's voice than a female's. Ootori shook his head still confused. "I've played before, in the boy's tennis tournaments, since my surname is Yagyuu I could disguise myself as my brother and enter the match under my name so it was still legal. The referee only calls out the surname so everyone thought I was my brother."

"You serious?" asked Ootori. Hinata nodded.

"The only person I imitate better than my brother is Marui-senpai." To prove it she pretended to be chewing gum and said in a voice that perfectly imitated her senpai. "Tightrope walking. How's that for pure genius?" Ootori couldn't help but laugh.


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14**

"Excuse me," said a voice, Hinata turned around to see a male around the same age as her with light brown hair cut in a style that seemed to have been the result of someone putting a bowl on his head and trimmed the hair by following the rim.

"Can I help you?" she asked taking a bite of her melon bread, lunchtime had only just started but Hinata was already hiding from Atobe's fan club and possies. She'd gotten up early to run a few laps around the school ground and as a result she was already tired.

"Is it true that Bucho intends to pass leadership of Hyotei onto you?" he asked. Hinata frowned slightly as she looked at him closely, where had she seen him before, the ridiculous haircut was definitely familiar.

"Pardon?" She had heard no such rumours but then again recently at school she was either dazed during class or asleep, the result of Sanada's harsh schedule.

"Rumours are going about that Atobe-bucho intends to give _you_ the position as captain," he explained, the tone of his voice was harsh. Hinata continued to ponder where she had seen him before, and then it hit her, Hiyoshi Wakashi, the most likely candidate for Atobe's successor; she knew the haircut was familiar.

"Is that so," said Hinata. "And you are here… because?"

"Gekokujou da," replied Hiyoshi. "A match, now." Hinata balanced sleeping for the next hour with Hiyoshi's pride at stake on a scale in her mind, sleeping won by tonnes but she suddenly had the image of herself saying 'Ore-sama no bi gi ni yoi na', she suppressed a shiver and the scales flipped.

"Sure."

* * *

Hinata yanked uncomfortably at her Hyotei tennis club uniform, her T-shirt was so long it could had been a short dress, well a extremely short dress, in the end she had gathered the back of the shirt and pinned it down with a brooch, her black shorts were still barely visible underneath the t-shirt.

"One set match then?" she asked twirling her tennis racket around her fingers as she placed her bag down beside the coach's bench.

"Sure," replied Hiyoshi doing the same as her. "I'll serve first then," removing a tennis ball from his pocket he bounced it twice before throwing in the air. Hinata leaned forward slightly waiting to receive the serve.

"What's going on?" asked Ootori walking towards the court where Hinata and Hiyoshi played a tennis match.

"Not sure, Hiyoshi-kun suddenly challenged Yagyuu-san to a match," replied a student who'd been watching from the start.

"The score?"

"3 games to 1," he answered.

"They're fairly well matched then."

"No, Hiyoshi-kun won the first but since he's hasn't been able to get another point."

Hinata threw the ball up in the air, gripping her racket she served and ran towards the net, Hiyoshi quickly chased up to the ball but he hit the ball with too much strength and it landed out.

"Hiyoshi made a mistake?" exclaimed Ootori remembering his own match with Hiyoshi and his own defeat. "No way."

"What's wrong?" asked Hinata as she watched her opponent grip his hand as if testing if it was still working.

"Nothing," he replied, the sudden numbness had disappeared just as quick as it appeared. He returned to his Enbu tennis stance. _What's going on? It's almost as if…as if I can't feel anything…_

Hinata served once more but like the last point Hiyoshi added too much weight to the ball, soon Hinata wasn't the only getting suspicious, Oshitari, Shishido, Mukahi and the rest of the regulars excluding Atobe and Kabaji were now watching.

"Neh! Yuushi! What's going on?" asked Mukahi his maroon hair ruffled by the wind.

"Not sure Gakuto," replied his doubles partner in his osakan accent. "But it's almost as if Wakashi's lost his sense of touch."

"Oi! Oi! Is that even possible?" asked Shishido.

"No but," Oshitari looked at Hinata carefully. "She's like Atobe don't you think?"

"How so?" asked Ootori extremely confused, he saw no connection between them.

"She makes the impossible possible."

_What's going on?_ Though Hiyoshi running towards the ball, just as he was about to swing everything went dark, he couldn't even hear the ball hit the ground, he swung randomly and felt his racket make contact with the ball but when the darkness and silence vanished he realised the ball had hit the net, it disappeared just as quick as it appeared.

Hiyoshi lost point after point, then game after game. Was there even a point in playing anymore? It was clear who would win. Why was he still playing? Why was he still fighting? Hinata served and Hiyoshi prepared to return but just as he reached for the ball everything disappeared, his sight, his hearing even his ability to feel, he trip over his own to feet and fell to the ground, trembling, sweat covered his body.

"Oi! Wakashi!" shouted Shishido running onto the court when Hiyoshi didn't stand back up, the others followed as Shishido shook his kouhai in hopes of getting some form of reaction.

Hiyoshi's eyes looked dead, there was no light, he was breathing still, he was alive, yet at the same time, he was gone. Ootori looked over to the other side of the court, Hiyoshi wasn't the only one trembling, Hinata looked horrified.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to, I-" but before she finished she grabbed her bag and ran.

* * *

Hinata hid behind the coverage of the trees near the school oval, curled up in a ball she was still shaking. "Sanada-senpai?" she whispered on her mobile. "I'm sorry to ask this of you but, can you come pick me up?"

"What happened?" asked Sanada standing up abruptly, Yanagi looked at him curiously.

"T-That," replied Hinata. "I can't control it senpai, I took everything from him, he couldn't see, he couldn't hear, he couldn't feel…S-Sanada-senpai, if this keeps up I won't ever be able to play tennis again," tears were streaming down her cheeks from her eyes at the thought. "It's the same thing as what happened to Mukahi-senpai…What do I do?"

"Wait there, I'm coming," said Sanada hanging up.

"Hinata-san?" said Ootori cautiously as he walked towards her. "Are you ok-?"

"Leave!" shouted Hinata.

"Are you-?"

"Just leave me alone Choutaro!" Hinata fresh tears poured down her cheeks. "Just leave me alone, please…" Ootori hesitated before taking off his jersey and covering Hinata with it.

"You're shivering," he explained sitting beside Hinata. "You know, on the first day I became a regular I accidently sent my serve off course and it hit another team mate in the face." Hinata didn't respond. "He ended up with four stitches and a missing tooth." Ootori laughed lightly, it was only thanks to Sakaki-sensei that the boy's parents didn't sue him, the coach's didn't believe in relying on a lawyer. "I guess 'Oops' is an understatement." There was still no response from Hinata, she continued to look down and gripping her mobile phone. "Whatever happened to Wakashi-kun wasn't your fault, accidents happen."

"But it _was_ my fault," replied Hinata at last. "I can't keep playing tennis like this, what if the effects are permanent? I don't even know what's going on!"

"Well if it helps Wakashi-kun was fine the moment his body left the court," said Ootori kindly. "He'll live; he's even more determined to get stronger now."

"But, but I…" Ootori placed an arm over Hinata's shoulders.

"Hush, before you say something you'll regret," comforted Ootori brining her closer. "He'll be fine, you'll be fine…it was an accident, whatever you did to him, you didn't mean to." There was silence as Hinata rested her head against his shoulder.

"The same thing happened with Mukahi-senpai," said Hinata softly. "I aimed the ball at his face knowing he'd dodge easily but while he was in the air his reaction time would be slower and I'd get the point with the next return. But…but the same thing happened, he didn't move, he just stood there, when he finally regained his sense the ball was centimetres from his face…"

"Well, Mukahi-senpai's reflexes are excellent," said Ootori.

"You don't get it," whispered Hinata wiping her eyes and moving away from Ootori. "I was…I was disappointed that he regained his sense at the last moment, I was disappointed it didn't last longer…I'm a…I'm a monster."

"Hinat-"

"Forget it Choutaro," interrupted Hinata. "Do yourself a favour and just stay away from me." With that she picked up her bag and walked again, she paused for a second. "Thanks though." She added.

Ootori smiled weakly. "Why does it feel like you're moving further and further away?" he asked no one in particular.

"Thanks for coming," said Hinata walking through the front gate where Sanada was already waiting for her.

"No problem," he answered.

* * *

"Sit," insisted Sanada as he and Hinata entered his house.

"Sorry for causing you so much trouble," said Hinata.

"You sound like Yukimura," scoffed Sanada while she sat down on the floor, he opened the sliding door to the back garden. "We'll meditate, clear your mind." Sanada sat beside Hinata, they both closed their eyes. Moments later he heard a soft 'Thump' sound, opening his eyes he saw that Hinata had fallen asleep and now rested her head against the wall. Sanada sighed; lifting Hinata into his arms he laid her gently on the wooden floor of his dojo and covered her with a quilt.

"Foolish child," he said quietly and gently stroked her cheek. "If only you and Yukimura didn't have the same gift. If only you didn't then you at least would be spared." The image of Yukimura sitting on the roof of the school appeared in his mind as the bucho smiled weakly, he placed his hand in his pocket to hide the tremor.

* * *

Hinata yawned as she opened the front door to her house.

"I'm home!" she shouted.

"Welcome back!" replied a male voice, Hinata began walking up the stairs when she froze and looked down at the person who replied, it wasn't her brother. Niou was sitting in the lounge room with a towel over his shoulders and no shirt, his hair was damp from a recent shower.

"Welcome back," said Yagyuu as he hurried down the stairs past his little sister and sat beside Niou, he grabbed the remote and changed the channel to the news.

"Hey!"

"You're almost sixteen," replied Yagyuu. Hinata looked at her brother then at Niou before slowly journeying up the stairs to her room, closing the door behind her she dropped her bag on the floor before changing out of her uniform into a set of light blue Pyjamas. She bounced down the stairs before running into the kitchen for a packet of chips.

"Give me that!" demanded Niou reaching for the remote in Yagyuu's hand; Yagyuu stretched his arm out moving the remote as far away as possible from his doubles partner.

"Hey! Hey!" warned Hinata snatching the remote before sitting on the carpet. "I'm still 14, keep it PG."

"Huh?" Hinata changed the channel and now cartoon Ninja were fighting on the screen.

"Nice," grinned Niou sitting back straight.

"I have no problem with your sexual preference but _please_, make it less obvious," pleaded Hinata as Niou grabbed a handful of lime and pepper chips. Yagyuu actually yelped while Niou dropped the chips back into the bag.

"No, no, no, no, no, no, no," said her brother shaking his head.

"Are you really that disgusted someone suggested that?" asked Niou slightly offended.

"Hey! What brand of shampoo do you use, cause it smell great!" said a voice as someone walked down the stairs, Kirihara appeared dressed what Hinata recognised to be her brother's t-shirt and shorts.

"Oh!" Hinata raised n eyebrow at her brother. "I see, a triangle is it? I didn't know you were into such stuff," she did her best to hide her amusement. "Here I thought you were a gentleman, what happened to the one guy policy?"

"No! Hinata the school showers broke, imagine Kirihara and Niou going home smelling like armpits, and seeing as our house is closest to campus I decided to let them come over."

"Just asking, is there any other half naked guys roaming the house?" asked Hinata.

"No!" scoffed Yagyuu. "Well, actually Yanagi's somewhere watching the moon."

"Somewhere watching the moon?" asked Hinata. "Is he dead or very close to death?"

"He's making a lunar chat in Yagyuu-senpai's room," explained Kirihara sitting beside Hinata. "Cool! Teenage mutant ninja turtles!" He crossed his legs and dug out a handful of chips.

"Lunar chart?"

"Trying to figure out when its Yagyuu's _that _time of the month," joked Niou, surprisingly Yagyuu threw a pillow at him.

"Don't," said Hinata hitting her brother's leg.

"Why?"

"That never works," she explained.

"What does work then?"

"Do what I did," Hinata turned around and looked at the television. "Shoot him." Yagyuu and Niou exchanged looks.


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15**

Niou looked down at his watch on his right wrist, it was already 11am, and even if Hinata and her father were asleep Yagyuu, at least would be awake. He knocked for another minute when the door finally opened.

"What!?" demanded a Hinata dressed in a navy blue night dress, leggings and a black robe on top, her hair had not been brushed and she was missing a slipper.

"Hi?" replied Niou, he was almost ten centimetres tall than her but it wasn't enough to peer down the front of her dress.

"Onii-chan's out, he left an hour ago," said Hinata before yawning. "And I was asleep; on the kitchen floor maybe; but none the less asleep so what do you want?"

"Umm, well actually…what were you doing sleeping on the kitchen floor?" asked Niou.

"Never you mind, if it's Onii-chan you want he's gone-"

"Actually I was looking for you," interrupted Niou, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a broken necklace. "I was looking for my earring when I accidently broke this while rummaging through the bathroom jewellery box." Hinata rubbed her eyes and looked at the necklace; it was a typical Niou design, a silver and black cross on a chain painted with fake blood. The joint that held the cross to the chain had broken, and judging from the dent, he had dropped it.

"Get a pair of pliers and replace the ring, then superglue it on and buff away all those nicks and scratches while you're at it," said Hinata.

"Huh?" Niou looked at her as if she had just explained a maths problem, and had added to the confusion.

"I'm out of art supplies," said Hinata. "I used it all up making that chain link spider necklace."

"Oh yeah! Yagyuu freaked when he saw it," remarked Niou. They were stuck in a predicament.

"Tell you what, you pay for the bus fair, lunch and the equipment needed to fix, and I'll fix it for you, deal?" offered Hinata, she wasn't about to pay for a trip to the CBD for an old necklace, speaking of the necklace, he had had it for as long as she'd known him, where did he get it in the first place? And why was it so important to him?

Niou pondered the deal and looked at Hinata, she looked as if she weighed no more than 55 kilograms, she couldn't eat that much for lunch, could she? "Alright, deal."

"Wait here while I get changed." With that she slammed the door shut.

* * *

"Okay, I'll start from the top…again," said Hinata. "This," she held out the first bottle. "-is designed for fabrics and soft material, it is designed to soak in and bind the materials together." Niou nodded and she showed him the second bottle. "_This_ one, is designed for metal surfaces and stays on the surface holding it together, which is why we're buying this one."

Niou processed this information. "But the first one's cheaper," he said at last, Hinata rolled her eyes.

"My god are you…" despite the wealth of Niou's now very successful mother he was surprisingly stingy when it came to things that didn't involve the words 'prank' or 'trick'. "This is the third time I had to explain it to you! Don't make there be a fourth!"

"Hinata-san?" She turned around to see; strange enough; Kabaji and Ootori with a handful of items from the store.

"Choutaro-kun!" remarked Hinata. "Hey, what are you doing here?" she asked eyeing the thin, pointy and long sticks in Kabaji's hand.

"Kabaji-kun ran out of wool and asked me to come with him to buy some new colours," replied Ootori, Hinata frowned slightly; she didn't doubt what he had said, just the fact that Kabaji had spoken.

"I see," there were various shades of white wool in his hands.

"I like that one," said Niou pointing to the silvery one, Hinata slapped his hand. "Hey!"

"Yeah, me too," agreed Ootori. "But this off white one is my favourite," he added pointing to one that had a slight peach tone.

"Typical," muttered Niou, Hinata stamped on his toe. "I'm merely commenting on his taste, which do you like?"

Hinata liked the silvery one Niou had picked but she wasn't about to admit it in front of him. "None, I don't like any shade of white."

"What then?" asked Niou.

"I'd rather a black or blue scarf."

"Like your heart," mumbled Niou, Hinata grinded the heel of her shoe on his foot.

"I haven't knitted in ages; maybe I should make myself a scarf, winters right around the corner," noted Hinata. Niou snorted. "What?"

"Sorry, I can see you strangling people with the stuff but not making it into a scarf for your sweetheart," explained Niou with a smirk.

"I think Hinata-san can do anything she sets her mind to," said Ootori before Hinata could open her mouth.

"Ha."

"I don't want to hear that from the person who can't tell the difference between fabric and metal glue," snapped Hinata. "Well, nice seeing you!" said Hinata waving to the two Hyotei students and dragging Niou towards the counter with the second bottle of glue.

"You too," replied Ootori he looked at the bundles of wool in his arm and set all aside except for the silvery and off white. "Neh! Kabaji, can you teach me to knit?"

* * *

"Who was that girly giant?" asked Niou as they walked out of the arts and craft store with all the necessary materials needed. "A classmate? Wow, they make them _weird_ at Hyotei."

"Just like Rikkai," said Hinata eyeing the window of a jewellery store. "Let's look over there!" she remarked walking towards it.

"You, looking at girly stuff, wow, what has the world come to," remarked Niou, Hinata frowned and looked at him.

"What is that suppose to mean?" she asked.

"Nothing, just unusual to see you act like…well a girl."

"So it's not normal for me to just look? It's not right, is that it? Well guess what _Masaharu,_ I _am_ a girl! Just because it took you 10 years to figure it out doesn't mean it's not the truth!" Niou was taken aback by her outburst.

"Sorry?"

"Its fine," said Hinata walking on ahead._ Why am I getting upset? He's __**never**__ seen me as a girl, ever._ "I want Chinese for lunch."

"I'm paying correct?"

"Yep."

"Damn. Wait…did you just call me Masaharu?"

"Did I?"

"You did."

"Oh!" Hinata thought for a moment and shuddered. "It will never happen again."

"No! I like it."

"Well _I _don't." This argument proceeded through lunch and the bus trip home where they ate the fortune cookies Niou had conned one of the waitresses to give him, the story was that they were siblings, they acted more alike than she was with Yagyuu (who had become his gay lover for the hour).

"I don't get why you won't call me Masaharu," said Niou frowning as the bus left the CBD and travelled through the inner suburbs.

"Because it…if I call you by your first name it's like telling the world we're close."

"So? Aren't we?"

"But I don't want to admit it, I mean come on, it's _you_," Hinata waved her hand at him as if proving a point.

"So basically, by calling me Masaharu you'll be wearing a sign saying 'Friends with Niou' on your forehead?"

"Yes, and the sign will probably read 'Slept with Trickster', Niou listen, every girl who has ever called you by your first name has either been a whore, or drug addict," said Hinata.

"But you have sl-" Hinata kicked him in the shin before he could finish the sentence. "Okay, sorry, shouldn't have brought it up, sorry."

"Just eat your fortune cookie," said Hinata impatiently handing him a cookie from the paper box they'd gotten from the waitress who had taken pity on her due to the lie that she had been attacked by a serial rapist when younger(they had used her surgical scar as proof). Niou cracked open the cookie and read the slip of paper inside.

"Soon you'll be on top," he read, as the words were coming from Niou her mind jumped to the gutter.

"It does not say that," said Hinata snatching it from him while he grinned. "_Of the world_, soon you'll be on top of the world!"

"I like my way better," Niou shrugged, Hinata kicked him again.

"Niou, get an atlas and write down all the places you'll never visit, then, add to that list, Yagyuu Hinata."

"But all I need is a plastic card for a return flight," said Niou smirking, Hinata kicked him again in the same spot.

"Fix your god damn necklace yourself," she muttered. "I hope you'll glue your hand to your-" before she could finish the bus had stoped at their desired destination. "Oh, we're here."

* * *

"Hinata! You have some explaining to do!" exclaimed Yagyuu the moment they entered the door.

"I'm home?" Yagyuu continued to frown. "What? Who have I offended now?"

"Who is it!? Who did you do _that_ with!?" demanded the now kind of scary older brother.

"Do what?"

"Don't play dumb, I found this," he held up a white tube like thingy; Niou looked closer to realise it was a pregnancy test.

"Didn't someone piss on that?" he asked, Yagyuu glared at him and he closed his mouth.

"That's not mine," insisted Hinata.

"Don't deny it! When we take you to the doctor we'll know if this belongs to you!" Niou and Hinata looked closer again, there was a blue line.

"Is that a bad thing?" she asked Niou.

"Most pregnancy tests have red as not pregnant and blue as pregnant," replied the trickster.

"Oh! So that _is_ a bad thing."

"So this _is_ yours!" said Yagyuu. "Who is it!? Is it him?" and to everyone in the room's surprise, he pointed to Niou.

"Huh!? What? What'd I do? It wasn't me!"

"Ha! Funny _you_ dragging Masaharu into this!" Niou opened his mouth to speak. "Slip of the tongue ignore it!" She snapped at him, he closed it. "Aren't _you_ the one of the Yagyuu siblings sleeping with the doubles partner!?"

"What!?" yelped Yagyuu and Niou in sync.

"Hell don't play dumb! He walks around half naked in this house; I _know_ what a shower means! And if you could get pregnant that will no doubt be yours! Not mine!"

"Hiina, that not funny," said Niou quietly. "Me, and him?" he indicated to Yagyuu with a thumb. "No, no way, never, not possible, absolutely not, impossible, fiction, in your dreams, not even if we we're the last two people on earth, I'm not _that_ horny." Hinata raised an eyebrow at the last one. "I like woman too much!" he remarked to his defence.

"Hey! Welcome home!" remarked a middle age man, he was dressed like a character from the matrix but it all suited him, he looked… well _cool_, for lack of a better word. An adult and cigarette smoking bad boy version of Yagyuu Hiroshi.

"I'm home Otou-san," replied Hinata.

"Hello Yagyuu-san," greeted Niou.

"Hey! Hiroshi, where'd you get that?" asked Hinata and Hiroshi's father.

"The bathroom bin."

"You _throw_ away trash not rummage through it," said Yagyuu Hatori, Yagyuu blushed. "Honestly, it scared the hell out of me when I first saw it as well."

"This is your?" For a moment the words 'My father is pregnant' passed through Hinata and Yagyuu's mind, while the words 'Gay or self inflicted' passed through Niou's.

"Yeah, well not _mine_ mine but you know, apparently, this specific brand has red for pregnant and blue for not. I suppose it makes sense seeing as a baby is a red card but, meh!"

"Onii-chan," said Hinata after an awkward silence, she pointed to the white stick in Yagyuu's hand. "Can you throw that away? I mean, well, someone peed on it after all."

"Yeah."

_**Just something random to lighten the mood of the story but that doesn't mean Niou's jokes were ALL senseless and shallow**_


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16**

Hinata counted quietly to herself, her arms in front of her one holding the bow the other an arrow, she inhaled as quietly as she could to minimize its hindrance to her ability to listen to her heart beat, she would shoot between beats as it was the time when the body tremor the least, at least that was what Sanada had taught her anyway.

The image of Yukimura playing against Sanada playing in her mind, the way he won so easily, that special skill that earned him the name of 'Child of god'. She placed the arrow on the bow and pulled back on the string, keeping count in her mind she pulled back on the string the moment she felt her heart beat and fired the arrow, it hit dead centre.

She removed a bow from the quiver on her back and carefully held it between her fingers and thumb, counting again she felt for the pauses between her heart beats and the tremors in her body. The image of Niou re-playing her dance on his mobile phone was replaying in her mind, she almost smiled at the numerous mistakes she made during the dance yet she looked so cheerful, she remembered the feeling of picking up the sword for the first time, pulling back on the bow she raised her arms and fired once more, again hitting it dead centre right next to her previous arrow.

Her mind wandered elsewhere once more as she fiddled with the feathers on the back of her arrow, holding in place she once again began examining the movements and sound of her own body with her inner ear.

She raised her arms and prepared to fire the arrow once more, countless thoughts and images passed through her mind again, Sanada's Fuurinkazan, her brother's laser beam, Ootori's scud serve, her match against Hiyoshi and Niou's voice.

"_You seemed so cheerful, your dance so full of life, yet now, for some reason, it gone, nothing more than a tasteless dish."_

She let go of the arrow and watched as it barely hit the side of the round target but she didn't care, now, she understood his words, at last she'd unravelled the true meaning of what he had said. She'd stopped dancing in public, fearing what other people would think of her dance, but, not anymore.

"My dance," she said quietly to herself. "It lacks a heart."

* * *

"Sanada-senpai!" shouted Hinata knocking on the sliding door of her senior's house. "Sanada-senpai!" The door pulled opened and Sanada stood wearing brown bamboo kimono and black hakama.

"You're up early," he remarked, it was only 6:30 in the morning, even tennis training didn't start for a while.

"Sanada-senpai, play a match with me, please?" she added at the end. Sanada frowned.

"Why?"

"Please! Please!" she pleaded. "I'll make you another hat or a pair of power wrist! Just please!" Sanada continued to frown.

"Alright then."

* * *

"Game and match! Sanada Geniichiro! 6 games to 4," said Hinata, despite loosing the match there was a wide grin plastered on her face. "Congratulations."

"What was that?" asked Sanada walking towards her as she reached for her towel. "Not once did _that_ happen during the match, so how?" Hinata held a finger to her lips.

"It's not perfected yet, so keep it a secret okay?" He nodded reluctantly, not perfected? What was missing? She had already made a tremendous come back from 5-0.

* * *

Ootori glanced nervously down at his watch, tennis club training had started half and hour ago, he looked down then up and around the school grounds which he could see.

"What's wrong Choutaro?" asked Shishido frowning slightly.

"Nothing," he replied, picking up his tennis racket from the cement fence, Shishido rolled his eyes.

"It's _not_ nothing, you any idea how many times you've looked at your watch?"

"No."

"Six! Six times in the last half an hour, what's wrong with you!?"

"It's nothing," Ootori looked down at his feet as he felt his face go red. "It's just, I…well, the one month period is up, and she…she should be coming today."

"You serious! Is _that_ what you're worried about!?" exclaimed Shishido not believing his ears, then again, it _was_ Ootori they were talking about, Ootori nodded. "She's already here!" Ootori dropped his tennis racket.

"Really! Where?" Ootori looked around hopefully.

"Baaka! She's in a meeting with Atobe and Kantoku; I thought you knew seeing as she waved at you."

"Oh…" He smiled embarrassed and his hair with his hand. Shishido punched him lightly in the shoulder.

"Why are you such a chick?"

"Sorry."

"Don't apologize!"

_Sometimes I wondered why I_ _bother_, thought Shishido.

* * *

"Save the regulars until the Kanto tournament?" echoed Hinata as she leaned against the back of her chair. She sat opposite Sakaki across a large oak desk with Atobe sitting beside her.

"Yes, this will prevent the other schools from gathering information on our regulars and allow the others to participate," explained Sakaki. Hinata never took for the kind of guy who believed in spreading the joy especially since he had the 'never lose or I'll kick you out' rule, come to think of it, it wasn't much different from Sanada's, only he'd slapped someone if they stuffed up.

"Who cares!?" she exclaimed. "When I was at Rikkai we didn't care who knew our strength, we'd win and crush them all the same no matter what kind of data they had!"

"Hinata-san, you've forgotten you're no longer at Rikkai," said Atobe fiddling with an apple that was on their coach's desk.

"Still, this is cowardly, no wonder this school was runner up last year," Hinata tightened her crossed arms and looked as if she wouldn't loosen them anytime soon. Atobe smirked.

"Perhaps we should let Hinata-san lead the pre-regulars and sub-regulars during the regional and prefectural tournaments, give her something to do and maybe show her _why_ we save the regulars for the Kanto," suggested Atobe. Sakaki considered this.

"So basically I'm a babysitter?" asked Hinata, Atobe smirked.

"Basically, but I don't know why you're complaining about being a coward and such, it not that, there's just no real point in the true regulars playing as even the weakest member in this club can win a regional match," he added. "I don't know how you operate at Rikkai, but doing this we're being merciful and the opponent can save some face."

Hinata looked back at the memories of the Rikkai middle school regulars completely slaughtering their opponent. "True," she agreed.

"Then would you mind over seeing the team then?" asked Sakaki, she shrugged and nodded. "Very well, then I'm going to give you and Atobe shared authority over the line ups." Hinata looked to her left expecting him to rebut and reject the proposition but the captain just continued to smile. "Itte yoshi."

"Hai Kantoku."

* * *

"Hey Hinata," Atobe called after her as they left Sakaki's office, Hinata turned around.

"I'm waiting," she said.

"For?"

"The 'san', you know, as in Hinata-_san_." She put as much emphasis on the last word as she possibly could. "You know? It's cutesy to add it to people's name who you're mere _acquaintances_ with. Neh Bucho?"

"Does it really matter?" he asked, Hinata nodded. "Very well, Hinata-san, my parent are having a party to celebrate the opening of the new branch office in Kanagawa, would you like to be my date to the party?"

"No," replied Hinata quickly. Atobe smiled.

"And why is that?" he asked amused.

"Because if I did that then people will think we're dating," replied Hinata.

"Don't they already?"

Hinata paused in thought and frowned at him. "…Yes, but that's your fault, you and that big announcement thingy you did last time…I still haven't forgiven you for that you know."

"It was months ago," replied Atobe.

"Yes, and we Yagyuu people hold grudges," said Hinata firmly remembering the time Niou switched her brother's decaf latte with caffeinated. It took a full month for her brother to forgive the trickster during the time he had made a makeshift pair with Yanagi or Kirihara.

Atobe sighed, she was a difficult person, standing straight he took her hand in his and said in his most sincere voice. "I apologize if it has inconvenienced you in any way, will you forgive me?" Hinata suppressed a smile.

"No."

"What!? Come on!"

"It's going to take more than a sorry for me to forgive you," she answered. Still holding onto her hand Atobe reached into his pocket and placed a velvet red box on her palm.

"A gift," he explained. "I was going to give it to you tonight but seeing as you're being difficult as usual here." Hinata opened the box to discover a beautiful white gold and crystal pendent arranged in the shape of a snowflake. "A peace offering."

"It's beautiful," said Hinata but she closed the box and handed it back to Atobe. "I can't accept this, if it was something you brought in a $2 shop or made out of something not pricey then I'd take it, but this…" Atobe frowned in confusion.

"I though females liked expensive gifts," he remarked.

"That's females who attend Hyotei," replied Hinata. "We _normal_ females prefer gifts with sentimental value."

"And you wonder why we have such a hard time," Atobe sighed and pocketed the box. "You're being difficult and unyielding."

"Always have been, always will."

"Alright then, then will you accompany me to the party, _as a friend_?" he added very clearly.

"Much better and I'd love to… On a different note, do you have the list of pre-regulars and sub-regulars?"


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter 17**

"What are you eating?" asked Yanagi curiously as he and the rest of the regulars watched Marui, Niou and Kirihara eat.

"Cupcake," Niou replied bluntly taking a bite of another, Marui and their kouhai sat beside him helping him eat them from a large plastic box that must have contained enough for the whole team.

"Thef arf veffy um," said Kirihara with a mouthful of chocolate cupcake.

"Huh?"

"That is one of the stupidest things I've heard come out of your mouth," said Sanada with a frown despite having eaten a couple himself.

"Where'd you get them," asked Yanagi helping himself to one of many dozens in a large plastic box.

"Hinata made them," answered Yagyuu. "They were supposed to be for the _entire_ tennis club but Niou started eating them and Marui and Kirihara joined in."

"Hey!" remarked Marui as Kuwahara took one from the box.

"Never mind me, how many have you eaten?" he asked with a frown.

"Nine…teen, nah! Just kidding! Six and the icing off seven more, that one included," added Marui pointing to the one in Kuwahara's hand who then dropped it in Marui's lap. "Kidding! Why did I say that?" Niou swallowed a mouthful of vanilla cupcake.

"I think icing makes you lie," replied Niou.

"Yeah…it does."

"Hmm, well then, I hope she doesn't give any to that Atobe guy then," said Yagyuu with a sigh.

"Hmm? Why?" questioned Kirihara curiously.

"Oh, didn't I tell you? She's going to some fancy party with that him."

"Who?"

"My sister and the captain of Hyotei."

"Wait, who?!"

"My _sister_, Hinata and the _captain_ of Hyotei Atobe Keigo." There was silence.

"Whoa," remarked Kirihara with his mouth still half full.

"Yeah," agreed Marui. "Can you see Hina-chan in heels?"

"Probably the last thing you'll see," added Yanagi, they all laughed, not at the terrible fate of the tragic victim but at the truth in his words as well.

"Hey, Niou-kun?" said Yagyuu when he noticed Niou space out, shaking his double's partner slightly he said again. "Niou-kun."

"Hmm?"

"You okay?"

"…Yeah…fine…" Despite masking his emotion's perfectly behind a poker mask Yagyuu still noticed something was wrong.

* * *

"Your stance," said Hinata as she walked up towards a pre-regular and adjusted his stance. "You have a habit of jumping once in the air before you run, you realise," she added as she tilted his wrist, he turned red.

"I do?" he asked.

"It's cute, in a _you wasted a very important second_ kinda way," replied Hinata, she watched as he swung again and slapped his wrist with her fingers leaving a red mark. "You keep twisting your wrist; this is why only half of your tennis balls go in!" The pre-regular's face went even redder.

"H-How'd you know about that?" he asked.

"Please, I don't need to be Yanagi to know what a habit like that can cost someone," she twisted his wrist. "Now stand like that for twenty minutes a day _at least_."

"Why?"

"It'll feel weird at first but as time passes you'll get more comfortable in the stance and hopefully you lose that annoying habit of yours."

"She's taking her position more seriously than Atobe," remarked Oshitari as he watched.

"Atobe doesn't even give pointers he just gets Kantoku kicks people off the team," added Mukahi.

"Ehh, what was that Gakuto?" said a familiar voice; Mukahi jumped and turned around only to see Jiroh.

"Hee hee, pretty good eh?" he grinned. Mukahi kicked his team mate.

"Damn it, the hell you think you're doing imitating Atobe?!" he demanded. Jiroh just yawned.

"What she doing anyway?"

"Prepping the pre-regulars and sub-regulars for the coming match," replied Oshitari.

"Hmm? Did Atobe ever do that?"

"If he did I don't remember."

"I wonder if she's single?" said Oshitari pushing up his glasses, Mukahi kicked him gently.

"Don't."

"Why not? She's gullible, and I'm bored…we're perfect for each other."

* * *

"Hiiiiina," said a familiar voice quietly next to Hinata's ear. "Hiiiina," it echoed. She stirred as she turned to her side and slowly opened her eyes, the first thing she saw was a silver blur, then gold eyes…slowly a face formed millimetres from hers. "Morning," he grinned. Hinata sat up quickly with a gasp, a hand covered her mouth to stop herself from screaming.

"Shhh," whispered Niou putting a finger to his lips, Hinata swallowed, slowly realisation hit her on who it was and she bit down on his hand. "Gah!" remarked Niou pulling his hand away from her mouth, there was a deep impression of teeth marks on his palm as well as saliva. "The hell was that for!" he demanded sitting on her bed and blowing gently on his bleeding hand.

"What the hell are you doing here?!" demanded Hinata she leaned back against the wall beside her bed when she realised that it was open, Niou grabbed her in time just before she fell out.

"Baaka," said Niou who was now on top of her. "This reminds me of the last time we were in this position, we had so much fun," he remarked.

"Hmm, even the blood has rushed to the same area as last time. Personally I was a little disappointed, seeing as how you have slept with so many women I thought you'd at least be good at it," responded Hinata coldly; Niou had his elbow on the bed and his hand underneath her.

"That's actually my knee," replied Niou. "And be flattered, not all of my one night stands smell as nice as you in the morning." He leaned forward and seemed to be about to kiss her neck, Hinata could feel his lips against her neck, his breath tickled. "This is fun; I have an excellent view of your bra as well, hmm black, I always pictured you for a white." Hinata rolled her eyes and kneed him, Niou gulped in pain.

"Having fun?" she asked as Niou's face turned red.

"What'd you do that for!?" muttered Niou quietly. "Oww," he whimpered.

"Because that_ definitely_ wasn't your knee," said Hinata pushing him back and sitting up. "What do you want? Second thought, I don't want to know, god knows how many disease you've caught since we…" she trailed off unable to find the right word.

"Had sex?" suggested Niou, Hinata gave him a Medusa glare. "It's what we did at its most blunt form, that's not what I came for; I have a 26 year old cougar for a neighbour who adores my company. No, what's this I hear about you going on a date with Mr. Monkey King?"

"Who?" replied Hinata.

"You know, Mr Big shot but lost to Sanada Atobe Keigo."

"Ohh! No, it's not a date… is that why you're here? Climbing into my bedroom at 7 in the morning?" Niou frowned.

"No!" he answered way too quickly, but Hinata didn't pick up on it and just nodded.

"Yeah, true, you're unable to perform basic emotions such as jealousy and kindness, so _please _tell me you came here for other reasons than to grope me?" Niou didn't answered, Hinata yawned. "Typical," she remarked pushing aside her sheets and standing up, making sure to pull down her dress as she stood.

"I _was_ worried," said Niou quietly, Hinata snorted as she pulled a jersey over her shoulders. "And I miss you; Rikkai is so much less fun without you around." Hinata smiled and pinched Niou's cheeks.

"That's so sweet, but I'm not going to sleep with you," she answered.

"Again," added Niou. "Cause you've already-" Hinata grabbed her pillow and threw it at his face. "......You may win the battle but you can't win the war," declared Niou throwing it back at Hinata, she laughed and ducked while Niou grabbed a second pillow and threw it at her which she once again ducked neatly. Having run out of pillows he reached for her stuff toy collection on the dresser beside her bed first throwing a Pikachu then a panda, a round pink ball called 'Kirby' and followed it with almost the entire cast of Hamtaro.

"Hey! I had those in alphabetical order!" replied Hinata grabbing the soft toys and throwing them back at him, after a few minutes plush pandas sat on her desk, beanie kids on her bed and the grape mascot of Ponta had ended up out the window and on the roof.

"Hinata?" asked the low voice of her father. "Hey, you okay?"

"Fine," replied Hinata casually. "I'm re organising my stuffed toys!" There were no further questions asked, the last time she got a new toy she lined all of her old ones to watch as she cut off the hair on the barbie doll her aunt had given her, she then microwaved it (by _accident _of course) and the kitchen smelt of burnt rubber for days.

"Okay," said Niou looking around the room, Ash from Pokémon had somehow landed right on top of Hinata's house shaped CD rack.

"Truce," offered Hinata holding out her hands for a shake, Niou thought about it for a moment when he noticed Hinata's dressed barely covered her knee and the collar of the dress wasn't very high. He took her hand and pulled her forward pressing his lips against hers.

He never realised until he heard Yagyuu complain about his little sister going to a dinner party with Atobe, it was as if a flame was lit below him, he was filled with jealousy, picturing her all dressed up for another guy. It was hidden by the brotherly love he had for her, she was _Yagyuu's sister_ a no go zone, they'd made the mistake of getting drunk when her brother and father were out on night, that left him confused ever since. No matter what type of female he'd sleep with, the feeling was never the same. He now realised, he really did love her.

Hinata was both surprised and hesitant at first, it was Niou, he would kiss and sleep with anything that moved sometimes it didn't even, in the beginning she thought it was just another of his jokes when she realised how desperate and longing the kiss was. She'd always known beneath his smirk, pranks and bad arse attitude he really was a great guy underneath. She'd dated other guys before, not nearly as much as Niou but enough to gain some form of expertise, this kiss was different from others she'd experienced, his touch, his kiss, his voice, all of it made her blood boil. She had always loved him, as a brother and friend, but now, everything seemed to have changed.

"I," began Niou on they broke apart. "Hina, I, I don't want you to go to that party with…_him_, as his date, I'd rather if you died my hair back to its former boring brown." Hinata laughed but it didn't stop her from pulling away from Niou's grasp.

"I-I'm confused," she said. "When did this all…?" Niou walked towards her and quickly kissed her lips.

"You think I'm not?" he asked with a grinned, Hinata smiled back but doubt was evident in her eyes. "Listen, I-I'm not the best boyfriend material, I'm not as smart as you and not nearly as flexible, you can kick so high you hit the guy behind you which is _awesome _when it's not me." She laughed again. "But, I really like you, as in, a lot and a lot, and…" Hinata placed a finger to his lips. She smiled and stood on her toes to kiss him.

"Please, just…give me sometime," she said as her heels touched the floor once more. "You know, to think, something you should have done before you came here. I just…need some time; I mean just yesterday you treated me like a little sister..." Niou opened his mouth to argue but Hinata just shook her head, leaning forward he kissed her on the forehead.

"I'll go," he replied, he was so quiet she didn't even hear him close the window.

Tears began to form in Hinata's eyes. _What am I suppose to do?!­_ She sat down on her bed when she noticed the round purple mascot of ponta on her bed and a smile escaped her.

**A/N: As usual, tell me if there any mistakes, review and wait for the next chapter!**

**A poll: The bad boy Niou Masaharu or the innocent Ootori Choutaro? And why?**


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter 18**

Niou laid on his back on the roof of a hospital looking up at the clouds, an unlit cigarette in his mouth. It was an old habit of his, smoking, he'd quit the year before with the help of Hinata but he occasionally fell back into the habit whenever he was stressed or troubled, this was definitely one of those times. But he was unable to light the cigarette, he longed for the nicotine but for the first time he didn't want to disappoint Hinata.

"There you are," remarked a patient of the hospital Yukimura, he closed the roof door behind him and sat down. "Sanada's going to slap you silly for skipping training."

"Then could you numb me before he does?" replied Niou. Yukimura laughed; no matter how Niou looked at his face he was a female, perhaps humans that bordered both genders really did exist.

"What's wrong?"

"I did something stupid."

"A typical Monday, what'd you do this time?"

"I attempted to seduce Hinata."

"You've already done that and somehow managed to succeed once."

"I kissed her."

"You've done that before as well."

"I told her I really liked her…" There was a pause as, Yukimura busted into laughter.

"Hahahaha! Oh my goodness! Hahahaha! You…yo-, heehee my goodness…You fool," he said once he had calmed downed and wiped a tear from his eye. "I always knew you'd eventually loose it but…hahaha, not like this."

"Ha-ha," muttered Niou with a deadpan face. Neither of them spoke for a while, Yukimura laid on his back like Niou and looked up at the sky.

"You know…I love tennis, with all my heart, when I thought I'd never play again…I was afraid," he said quietly. The Child of God, afraid? "But, Sanada was there, no matter how many times I yelled at him, no matter how many hurtful words I threw at him, he stayed with me. That's what it means to be in a relationship Niou, to stay by each other's side, to love the other, to support them, to be faithful," he added cheekily with a smile. "If you think Hinata is that person, chase her, wear her down until she says yes, even if she says no at the beginning, if you prove yourself, there's no way she'll reject you."

"Like you and Sanada," remarked Niou.

"Yeah, took a while too, almost two years in fact," agreed Yukimura. Niou continued to look up.

"When I first met Yagyuu I hated him," he said. "He was a pompous arrogant jerk who had it easy, but when I first saw him carrying his sister in his arms, I thought 'poor him, he's stuck with her for the rest of his life', when the coach yelled at us for fighting he threw us into a match as a makeshift doubles pair seeing as we 'knew each other's weaknesses better than our own'…I guess it was true, I was always finding reasons to pick a fight with him and in the end the pairing stuck and we became best friends."

Yukimura smiled but didn't speak, he just listened.

"When I first met Hinata she was a tomboy, she ran, she kicked, she spat at me for calling her a 'girly girl' and nailed me to the ground until I said I was sorry," Niou laughed. "She's surprising quick you know, I quickly took a liking to her, but one day…we were at the park just the three of us when she tripped, it triggered an attack…Yagyuu, he was amazing, he didn't finch and just jabbed the needle into her like it was nothing, it was then I realized how fragile she really was, I began treating her like a bubble always weary when she'd pop. After that attack we had a falling; me and Hinata; she didn't like being treated like she'd break the moment you touched her, and soon I began hating her too. Yagyuu was stuck with her, he might even have to support her for life, she was nothing but dead weight, nothing but a burden, before I realized I'd fallen for him, I made sure Yagyuu never realise me feelings for him, to love someone and stay by their side was the benefit of being friends." Niou sat up, removing the cigarette he looked at Yukimura. "She found out, nothing gets past her I swear…she confronted me and I told her to get lost; I told her it was none of her business and that I hated her. I told her that all she did was cause trouble for Yagyuu. I was angry; it was never going to be Yagyuu and me, always Yagyuu, me and Hinata." Niou looked at his hands ashamed. "When the police went to investigate how she fell from that tree…there was no foul play, it was sturdy, when I learnt that, the first thing I thought was 'she tried to kill herself' was it my fault? I constantly asked myself; did I drive her to try to remove herself from Yagyuu's life?"

* * *

"Neh, Sanada-senpai, what do I do?" moped Hinata as she curled up on the floor of Sanada's dojo.

"Say yes or no and move on," replied the emperor. "What else can you do?" Hinata made a whining noise that prompted Sanada to throw his slipper at her. "Stop that, you're not child."

"But I don't know what to do," Hinata laid on her back and hit the floor with her feet and fists. "Ahhhhhhhhhh!!! Argh! Baka Niou! Annoying Niou! Stupid! Moron! Jerk! Loser!" she continued to demonstrate her wide vocabulary of insults.

"Better?" asked Sanada.

"No, Japanese is so limited, if you're going to swear try Chinese." She continued to do so.

"You've been around Niou for too long," remarked Sanada, Hinata pouted and frowned.

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" she shouted, Sanada threw his other slipper at her head.

"Honestly, the lungs on you." Sanada sighed. "How did I get caught up in this?" Hinata bit down on her lower lip. "Oh well, if you even need it, the floor in this dojo will always welcome you."

"Thanks…I guess," whispered Hinata. "I warm you, I drool when I sleep." Sanada laughed and just shook his head, he left her alone to think. Hinata looked at the ceiling of the dojo, remembering the time Niou caught her in one of the empty classrooms kissing a senior from the tennis _club._

"_I don't see what the big deal is!" she shouted at him. "My life! I kiss whoever I want!"_

"_You want me to draw a word picture of your new boyfriend! You put a racket in a ape's hand and you've got it! He's a complete dush!"_

"_Want me to describe what you see in a girl!? Breasts, vagina, did I miss anything? Hmm…wait, that's it!"_

"_What do you see in him?"_

"_He's a good kisser!"_

"_So am I, are you going to kiss me!" demanded Niou, Hinata grabbed the front of his collar and brought him lower to her height and kissed him._

"Dissapointing_," she remarked letting him go and walking away._

Niou smiled as he remembered their first kiss and then their second.

"_So you're into chicks now?" asked Niou as he followed after Hinata as she struggled to put on her jumper as she ran after walking in on her kissing another female. "If you were you should have told me, I'd loved to watch." Hinata managed to pull her head through._

"_You see, this is why I gave being bi a try, cause if all men were like you I'd be lesbian." She began running down the stairs but halfway Niou pinned her to the wall._

"_Was it the kiss? I know that was disappointing, but be fair, you caught me by surprise," he leaned forward and kissed her neck. "I hate to leave unfinished business," he whispered into her ear before he kissed her. "Well?" he asked when they broke apart._

"_Definitely straight…"_

Hinata looked back on the rain and the tears.

"_Niou, Hinata, this is my girlfriend," introduced Yagyuu to a pretty brunette female. Hinata immediately looked towards Niou; there was nothing but that arrogant smirk._

"_Congrats Yagyuu, honestly, you should have asked for my help it was going to take you so long."_

"_I wanted to date her not scare her away."_

_Hinata stood there unable to speak, her hand in a fist. "Niou, I need to a smoke," she grabbed his wrist and dragged him towards the door._

"_I told you to quit!" remarked Yagyuu. "And it's raining."_

"_Then hopefully the cigarette won't light up!"_

"_What's wrong Hinata, you don't smoke," questioned Niou. Her string of reasoning snapped._

"_Why are you such an idiot?! You love you! Go kick his girlfriend out of the picture and make him yours!" shouted Hinata, she was surprisingly childish at times, Niou smiled as the rain disguised his tears._

"_You're such a brat."_

"_I don't get it! I really don't get it!" said Hinata. "You…you love him, don't you? So why? It's only going to hurt this way…" Niou threw his arms around her and buried his tears into her shoulder._

"_Just, let's just stay like this for a while…please..."_

Hinata knew her answer; she knew what she was going to say.

Niou now knew what was better for her, for both of them, what was the right thing for him to do.

"Neh Sanada-senpai-"

"Yukimura-"

Looking back it was so clear what was to be said.

"I'm going to say yes."

"I'm taking back what I said."


	19. Chapter 19

**Chapter 19**

"Ahh! Kill me now," moaned a Hyotei sub regular as he fell to the floor.

"Dude, get up now!" whispered his teammate.

"No, kill me now!" he moaned. His friend bent down beside him.

"Dude, if the she-demon sees you-"

"You there!"

"Shit!" he fled leaving the sub regular behind.

"Crap…"

"Get your arse off the ground and start running!" shouted a loud terrifying female voice.

"Yes mam!" he replied getting to his feet and running for his life.

"Ahh! The spawn of the devil is at it again," remarked Oshitari as he watched the pre-regulars and sub-regulars running laps around the court, and surprisingly, Hinata was with them, running with the group of sweaty teens but she herself had barely broke out in a sweat. Scary as she already was with her loud voice, menacing glare and with the rumours of her with a sword spread across the school she had a tennis racket in her hand which she used to threaten the scared little children.

"I'm so glade I'm a regular," said Mukahi with a relived sigh. "She's scary."

"That's because the regional tournament is this weekend," replied Oshitari. "I still don't understand why she's bothering, it's just the regional tournament, we could win it in our sleep."

"She's a psychopath, that's the only answer I can come up with," replied Mukahi. "Hey, why are there only twenty or so people running?"

"The others gave up and are training by themselves," explained Oshitari.

"Ah! I see, don't blame them…"

"Yeah."

* * *

"Hello Coach-san," greeted Atobe as he appeared behind Hinata. She ignored him.

"You there! Your wrist keeps flicking, keep that up and the ball will never get over the net!" she said.

"Yes mam."

"Mam?" asked Atobe.

"They called me Miss at first but I felt as if it didn't command enough respect," explained Hinata, checking the list in her hands. "Shigure needs to work on his endurance; I better start them on another run." Atobe frowned in confusion.

"Are they _all_ lacking in the endurance department?" he questioned, she thought for a minute.

"Come to think of it yeah your right they are," she agreed.

_Oops_, thought Atobe.

"Alright! Break's over! Twenty laps now!" she shouted, there were groans but no one dared argue, in a way, she was worse than Sanada himself.

_I feel as if this is my fault_, thought Atobe as he watched them run the extra laps.

* * *

"Oi! Akaya, get up," complained Kuwahara kicking his kouhai gently in the arse.

"Go away," muttered Kirihara rolling in the grass. "It's such a nice day; I don't want to do anything."

"When Sanada comes back he's going to kill you," sighed Kuwahara.

"More like kill us for letting him," muttered Marui.

* * *

Hinata walked towards the front of the school, around her, males were complaining about cramps and sore muscles, she ignored them as she felt the dreaded glares of their girlfriends' boring into her back.

"Oh no," she muttered when she spotted Niou waiting for her outside the gate, she'd been avoiding him since the day before when he broke into her home and confessed, then again she left the window unlocked so he didn't _technically _break into her home, it was just entering and confessing. She didn't want to see him right now, not now, not for the rest of the week at least. Leaving through the back gate she was in a dilemma, he'd no doubt go to her house next, then all the usual places including Sanada's home, there was no place to hide…except…if he was here, today Yukimura had a hospital check up and Sanada, Yanagi and her brother would be there, there was a place where Niou would never think to find her.

* * *

"Come one Akaya!" said Kuwahara. "Do one lap around the court, one lap is all I ask of you."

"No use pleading with him," said Marui with a sigh. "Just tie him to a tree and be done with it."

"Marui that's-"

"Jackal-senpai! Bunta-senpai! Akaya!" greeted a familiar voice. Kirihara sat up, pointing his racket at Hinata he said.

"I demand a match!"

"Is this alright?" whispered Kuwahara. "I mean if Sanada finds out…"

"If he asks we can honestly say Akaya has been training today," replied Marui.

"Che, looking out for your own neck…"

"Game to Kirihara! 6 games all!"

Both Kirihara and Hinata were exhausted, Hinata reached for her towel and wiped her face while Kirihara grabbed his bottle and poured its content all over himself.

"Hey, don't you think this match is a little weird?" asked Marui.

"How so?" Kuwahara asked back.

"I don't know…it's just so, friendly…"

"Tiebreaker! Yagyuu to serve!" Hinata stood by the back line, bouncing the ball several times before tossing it into the air to serve, Kirihara easily returned it while Hinata used both hands to hit the ball, the strength in the return surprised him and all Kirihara managed was a weak lob which Hinata smashed. "Point! Yagyuu! One love!" Kirihara cursed to himself, he wanted the first point. He removed a ball from his pocket and served, overcoming Hinata with powerful hits, he earned the next point.

"Point to Kirihara! Five all!"

"This is weird," said Marui quietly. "Never in the pervious games has this happened, Hinata likes to take the win quickly…and those rallies, several times could she have taken the point. And the red Akaya hasn't appeared yet…what's going on?"

"There's no fighting spirit," agreed Kuwahara._ This isn't like Hinata, she loves to thrash Akaya in a match…then again, they haven't played for months, and that was before Akaya developed that red eyed mode…could she? No…could she?_

"Akaya, he seems to be enjoying the match, but there's no intensity," said a familiar voice.

"She's keeping his motivation level down," replied another, Kuwahara and Marui turned around to see Sanada, Yagyuu and Yanagi and they practically jumped out of their skins.

"S-Sanada, I can explain, I-" The emperor ignored the scared Kuwahara.

"What do you mean?" Yagyuu asked.

"Akaya's bloodshot eyes come from his desire to win," explained Yanagi. "The way the match has progressed, he has every chance to win as he does to lose; he isn't cornered and feels calm, confident even."

"So she lost six games on purpose?" asked Marui.

"And drawed the tie breaker on purpose," added Yanagi. Marui turned his attention back onto the match, already they were playing to get two points above the opponent.

Akaya's tennis revolves around his pride, the moment his pride is attacked he goes berserk, she's keeping Akaya from reaching into his potential by playing a even match," stated Yanagi. "Most likely, her plan is, she's going to draw the 13 point tie breaker and then take two consecutive points from him."

"Why?"

_Because I can no longer beat him_, thought Hinata. _If I don't do this I don't have the confidence to beat his bloodshot mode…damn it, since when did he get this strong? I better win this quick, before he realised what I've been doing._

_What's going on?_ Questioned Kirihara._ Don't tell me she purposely drew this match out? Why? To prove she's better than me? Why? I…I don't want to lose, if I lose this point, I lose the match I-Shit!_ He lobed the ball, Hinata jumped to hit a smash but something wacked her in the stomach causing her to fall back.

"Oww," she moaned sitting up when she realised it was Kirihara's racket beside her.

"Oh! Sorry, Sorry! I lost my grip!" sneered a mocking voice, Hinata looked up, just as she'd feared, Kirihara's eyes, were red.

"Damn it."

"Point! Yagyuu! 30-31!"

_One to go, just one to go, damn it why is it so hard to get this point?_ Though Hinata, she flinched, her left side hurting. _I have to finish this now; I can't let this continue for much longer, I think that fall fractured a rib._ Hinata held her racket by the 'Y' of the frame in a backwards grip. _Too much strength and the movement are stiff, too little and you lose your grip._ Letting the racket flick as she hit the ball it flew across the net with a powerful backspin, Kirihara raised his racket to hit the ball, but it didn't bounce, it just span on the ground, even moving towards the net a little.

"Game and match! Yagyuu! Seven games to six!"

"Finally," sighed Hinata, she flinched in pain. _Damn, I stuffed up and here I though I mastered it after that match with Sanada-senpai._

* * *

"Honestly! How many times do I have to tell you! Every time you swing your grip weakens! Did you not do the exercises I told you to?" lectured Hinata as she sat on the coach's bench, even thought her player won; he lost a game during the match.

"I'm sorry mam."

"Practice," she instructed.

"Yes mam."

"Three games to love! Hyotei progresses to the finals!"

Hinata sighed. _They're useless, absolutely useless, I tell them to do a slice, they do a backspin…this is giving me a headache._ She sat by the water fountain running her fingers through her hair, it was fun watching them improve, but really, it was too much.

"Here," offered Ootori holding a can of ponta to Hinata.

"Thank you," she said, opening it and draining its content.

"That bad?"

"That bad," agreed Hinata, there was a pang of pain at her side. "They're hopeless! This one guy! He's bragging on how good he is! And then he runs to the left leaving the right wide open! I'm like, oh no! And the opponent hits! And he hasn't even realised what a big opening there was! I'm like, oh good, hope he can change his position…and then he hits the ball from the same spot! This is bad for my heart Choutaro."

Ootori laughed as she ranted on about the tennis players. "Sounds like you're having fun Hinata."

"I'm not!" exclaimed Hinata which only caused him to laugh harder. Hinata stood up to throw the can away but stoped.

"Hinata? You okay?" asked Ootori getting up as well, Hinata's knees gave way but before she hit the floor Ootori had caught her in his arms. "Hinata! Hinata!" She couldn't breathe, she couldn't hear, all she could feel was pain, her chest hurt, as if someone had grabbed her heart and squeezed.

"Hinata-san?" Atobe ran towards them, and lifted Hinata from Ootori's arms. "Ootori call the ambulance!" Ootori was already reaching for his phone. "Hey! Hinata-san! Hinata-san!" _No, no, god that I hate, please, don't, don't take someone else away from me._ They were so alike, Hinata and his little sister, he almost as if it was _her_ he was holding in his arms. _God, don't… not her, not another…_


	20. Chapter 20

**Chapter 20**

"_The surgery was a complete success," assured the doctor. Hinata smirked._

"_You said that last time," she remarked._

"_We've done a full scan, ultra sound and even iodine colour scan," said the doctor. "The hole has completely closed and we've stopped the clogging and bleeding from your heart to lungs. But remember, in order to mend the damaged tissues we've had to compensate the overall strength of your heart muscles. You must be careful," he warned._

"_Wait, you sound as if you're saying I can't play tennis anymore," said Hinata slightly confused._

"_I won't tell an eye to not see nor will I tell a tennis player not to play tennis but please be aware of your current condition, your life is like a candle, one solid blow and it will go out." _

* * *

"Hey, what's going on?" asked a Hyotei freshman when he spotted a white ambulance car pulling to a stop not far from where they were.

"Not sure," answered his team mate. "Hey isn't that-?" More people turned their heads as they watched Hinata being wheeled into the car, not far behind her was Atobe and Ootori.

"She's not breathing!" The paramedics began unloading equipment from their vehicle.

"Get a tube down her throat quick Kiesuke!" One of them began pressing a plastic tube down through her mouth to her windpipe.

"Damn it, her wind pipe is closing, Anita hand me a smaller tube!"

"We have to make an incision in her throat." Said the other as she removed a sterilising tissue and wiped the base of her throat with the yellow liquid.

"No wait, I can do it!" said James. Anita ignored him and took out a surgical knife.

"I'm making the incision," she said.

"Got it!" cheered James attaching the tube to a plastic pump and pumping oxygen into her lungs. "Has she any previous medical conditions."

"I…um, don't know," stammered Ootori. "Something to do with her heart I think."

"She was born with a heart on the right side of her body," said Atobe. "Due to its position it was small and weak unable to function properly so at eleven she got a transplant, but recently the tissues ripped causing internal bleeding into her lungs, but they sealed it back up although the over all health of her lungs and heart have gone down." Ootori looked at him with wondering eyes. "What? I read her medical file in the nurse's office."

"Medication?" This time Ootori reached into her back and removed a familiar flat case.

"Here," he said offering it to them. One of the paramedics opened it revealing several sealed pills, two small glass bottles filled with one clear and the other a reddish liquid, two needles still in their packet and several bandages and wipes. "I don't know what's in them."

"Cyclosporine Azathioprine," said Atobe. "But I don't know what the reddish one is."

"Let's go," said the paramedic. "We need to get her on a proper regulator." Both Ootori and Atobe attempted to climb into the vehicle.

"You two, only one person can ride with her to the hospital," said one of the paramedics. The two exchanged look.

"I'll go," they said in sync.

"Ootori, I'm the captain here, I'll go," said Atobe.

"Atobe, as the captain, shouldn't you stay behind and watch over the team?" questioned Ootori. The king's eyes widened, not once had Ootori even spoken back, it was a first.

"Hurry!"

"Sorry," said the sophomore as he climbed into the ambulance beside an unconscious Hinata. "You better film the finals; otherwise Hinata will throw a fit if she doesn't get to pick at their every mistake." Still in shock all Atobe did was nod and say.

"Sure."

* * *

"I'm sorry sir but unless your family or someone lets you in we can not indulge personal information," said the receptionist, Niou kicked the desk.

"The hell is with that! She almost dies and here I am listening to some stick with boob implants telling me I can't see her! What type of fucked up system is that!" he demanded.

"I'm sorry but that's hospital policy," said the receptionist. "Please leave."

"There's no need," said a familiar voice. Niou turned around to see Ootori.

"Choutaro-bouchan," remarked the receptionist standing up and bowing.

"He's with me," said Ootori.

"Y-Yes, of course."

"This way Niou-san," said Ootori leading him into the elevator, the moment he enter the numerous doctors and nurse who were also inside immediately left.

"Weird," was all Niou could say. "The hell is wrong with them? I swore in a hospital, not like it's contagious."

"It's not you, it's me," replied Ootori. "My family owns this hospital you see."

"Great, Hina won't need to pay for the hospital fee then," remarked Niou, Ootori laughed.

"No, Hinata won't need to pay I've already arranged it all with my father," he answered. Niou eyes narrowed.

"You, who are you to call Hina by her first name?" he asked slightly jealous. Ootori blushed, with a ding the elevator doors opened.

"This way," he said quietly stepping off the lift with Niou close behind him. "This is the 8th floor with private rooms; I figured Hinata wouldn't like sharing with someone."

_Again?_ Thought Niou. "Hmm, thank you, but why are you taking such good care of my girlfriend?" _Not really…yet, but he doesn't know that. Wait, wasn't I going to take it back? Argh! I don't know! Not now, lie now, ask for forgiveness later._

"G-Girlfriend?" echoed Ootori.

"Yeah, we've been dating for a while now-"_Not really._ "-didn't she tell you?"

"N-No," replied Ootori. _So she had a b-boyfriend…damn it! I should have realised, she has always avoided getting to close and friendly with me, I thought perhaps she was just like that with everyone…I see, She was trying to tell me she was dating someone…I'm such an idiot._

"Which room?" asked Niou.

"811," Ootori answered. "Have you known Hinata long?"

"Well course, why do you ask-" but he was cut short by the sound of a something breaking from within room 811. "Hinata?!"

They hurried to her room and opened the door, everything was a mess, broken glass and ceramic everywhere all over the floor, she had ripped up the pillows and feathers were falling. She had even cut herself by stepping on one of the shards but she completely ignored the pain. She wore a simple hospital robe over a cotton chemise, both not even reaching three quarters down her thigh. She screamed as she fell to her knees, tears pouring down her face, the glass cut into her skin causing more blood to be splattered on the floor.

"Hina-" Niou moved towards her but hesitated when he saw the broken glass, Ootori didn't hesitate; letting himself get cut by the glass he knelt down beside her and wrapped his arms around Hinata.

"It's okay," he said quietly. "Everything will be okay," he whispered to her again and again while she continued to cry in his arms. "Hinata what happened?" he asked when she finally began to calm down.

"Choutaro! H-He said…he told me, he said that I," was all she managed between sobs.

"Who? What did he say?" asked Ootori in his softest voice.

"The doctor…he said…" she broke into a fresh set of tears. " He said I should stop playing tennis for good." Ootori tightened his hold on Hinata, burying his face into her hair.

Niou felt completely useless as he stood there watching, watching as the girl he loved cry, and all he could do was stand there, stand there and watch.

**Sorry! Short chapter! But it's the holiday and summer so I'm out and about getting a nice tan! Just yesterday I went to play tennis with a friend, she completely thrashed me…hee hee**


	21. Chapter 21

**Chapter 21**

Marui knocked on the hospital room door.

"Come in," said a voice. He entered the room closing the door behind him. "Hi," greeted the patient.

"I brought cake," he remarked holding the box at eye level.

"I see, thank you," she answered.

"I'll leave it here then," said Marui placing the box down on a small table in the corner. "This is a nice room," he remarked. "You got a TV, a double bed, a small kitchen even your own toilet."

"Yeah," she agreed weakly. Marui's stomach clenched every time he heard her spoke, it was so different, so weak, so frail, her voice had changed, not the sound, but the tone, it sound almost as if she had, given up.

"Hinata!" greeted Kirihara opening the door without knock. "How are ya?" he greeted sitting beside her.

"Fine," she answered.

"Look at you, you're a stick," Kirihara looked around the room and grabbed an apple and a knife. "I'll peel it for you but you better eat it you skinny little twig." Seven cuts, eight band aids and a new apple later it was Hinata peeling the skin off the fruit and cutting it to pieces.

"Here," she offered holding the plate of peeled and sliced apples to Kirihara; he looked down with embarrassment.

"Thanks," replied Kirihara taking a piece of apple.

Soon Kuwahara, Niou, her brother Yagyuu even Yanagi entered the room to visit her.

"All the usuals made it to the prefectural," said Yanagi. "That includes Seigaku, Yamabuki and Rokkaku."

"So as usual, this years Kantou representatives," said Marui. "It'll be us Rikkai, Rokkaku, Seigaku and Hyotei then, right?" Yanagi nodded. "With Yamabuki in fifth."

"Same old same old," sighed Niou. "Can't things get more interesting?" He picked up a racket off the floor underneath Hinata's bed. "What's with this racket?" he remarked weighing it in his hand.

"What's wrong?" asked Marui taking it from his hand, his mouth fell open. "No way, how light is this thing?" The racket was passed around until everyone had had a feel of its lack of weight.

"Interesting," mused Yanagi. "It's made from fibreglass or some other sort of light weight material, the feel is very different from wooden rackets."

"Look at the strings," added Marui. "They're made from natural gut."

"It'll lack the natural spin you would get from the synthetic ones," said Yanagi. "I see, Hinata's play has a lot of powerful shots, the spin you would get from the synthetic strings would cause most of the power to turn into rotation, very clever. But this racket is white, wasn't yours blue."

"It was a gift," replied Hinata, although her tone clearly stated she didn't really care.

"From who? This looks like one hell of an expensive racket."

"Atobe," she answered casually.

"As expected of him to have this kind of money to splash around," admired Marui with a whistle.

Yagyuu watched as his sister continued to look aimlessly out the window leaning closer he said with a small smile. "Hyotei managed to get a clean sweep throughout the finals without a single regular on the team, you should be proud." But instead of a smile she sighed.

"I'm sorry," this got all of their attention. "But could you please not talk about tennis in front of me?" There was a long awkward silence.

"Oh! Sorry, god look at the time," remarked Marui looking at Kuwahara's watch. "We better go." With that he stood up and left dragging Kuwahara behind him.

"Bye," said Kirihara waving.

"Good bye," said Yanagi as the two left the room.

"I better go to class as well," Yagyuu kissed his sister on the cheek. "Get plenty of rest okay?" Hinata smiled weakly and nodded.

"Sure." Yagyuu gave her a hug before leaving. Niou sat awkwardly beside Hinata, the two now alone in the room.

"You've gotten thinner," remarked Niou, Hinata shrugged.

"I'm a picky eater," she answered.

"Hospital foods don't agree with you huh?" She nodded. "What do you want to eat?" asked Niou. Hinata frowned in thought.

"Jelly," she answered, this triggered a laugh.

"That's just water and food dye!"

"Yeah, but I don't know why but I suddenly want to eat jelly," Hinata sighed. Niou smiled as he sat closer to Hinata and held her hand in his.

"I'll bring some the next time I visit," he promised.

"Mango," she said firmly, Niou nodded in submission.

"Whatever you desire my Queen," he replied. They exchanged a small smile. _I can't leave her,_ thought Niou._ Not now, not ever I think._ Leaning closer he pressed his lips against hers; Hinata was surprised at first but relax and kissed him back. "How long will you be stuck here?"

"Two months at least," she answered. "Dad says since we're not paying who cares how long I stay."

"Are you allowed to leave?" She nodded.

"I just have to tell my doctor, not that he'll likely say yes since I trashed the room." Niou looked around, all the broken glass and ceramic was gone as were the stray feathers.

"They did a good job cleaning up," Hinata nodded.

"I agree." Niou wrapped his arms around her.

"Will you never play tennis again?"

"It's not that I can't swing a racket or hit a ball," replied Hinata quietly. "It's the running around the court, I don't have any endurance left, my lungs might give out under strenuous exercise."

"So you _can _swing a racket, right?" She nodded. "Then why don't you just master the Tezuka zone or something?" asked Niou, Hinata laughed.

"Not that easy, I'm a power player, to master Tezuka zone I'd have to work on my technique a lot more."

"You're already a master of rotation and spin," noted Niou. "You know how to the Zero degree drop shot."

"Pure luck," remarked Hinata.

"Marui's tight rope."

"I've been learning from him for years."

"Kirihara's knuckle serve."

"I'm never using that."

"Your counter tennis techniques are good, so why can't you master the Tezuka zone?"

"It's not that, it's just that it's a really advance technique, even Sanada-senpai can't do it!"

"Yeah but, Sanada is Sanada, you are you." Hinata smiled at his words.

"Thank you." An idea sparked in Niou's head.

"Hey, why don't we sneak out for a while?"

* * *

"What did you say!?" demanded Atobe grabbing Ootori's collar.

"She's gone, missing from the hospital," repeated Ootori, Oshitari removed Atobe's hands from Ootori's collar.

"Oi Oi! We're in the middle of training Atobe," said Oshitari. "Try to calm down."

"When?"

"They realised she was missing this morning."

"Tell the coach I have something to do," said Atobe packing his bag, Oshitari grabbed his arm.

"Try to calm down would you?" he said in his rich accent. "What good will it do if you storm out to find her, do you even know where she might be?"

"Well I can't just leave her," he replied.

"Baka," remarked Mukahi.

"What did you-?"

"Leave it Gakuto," said Oshitari standing between them. "Should we call the police?"

"There's a GPS locator is her racket," added Atobe.

"Or-" remarked Ootori taking out his mobile phone "-I could just try calling her cell."

"Huh," Mukahi looked at Atobe as he pointed at Ootori. "Why didn't you think of that?"

"Shut up."

"Hello?" asked a voice on the other end of the phone.

"Hinata?! Where are you?!"

"Clear the line I need to call an ambulance!"

"What? What happened?"

"I said clear the line!" replied the voice, listening closely, he didn't recognise the voice. He hung up.

"What happened?" demanded Atobe.

"Hinata, I think she had another attack."

**Argh! I know, Niou's an idiot for sneaking her out and Hinata's an idiot for following. Next chapter is about what happened between Hinata and Niou!**


	22. Chapter 22

**Chapter 22**

"I'm going to kill him," said Atobe gripping his hands into fists. "I swear I'm going to kill him." He repeated as he and Ootori stormed don the hospital corridor to the room 127. "What was he thinking taking her out of the hospital?" Ootori felt much the same but unlike Atobe, he was better at controlling his emotions, they knocked on the door.

"Can I help you?" asked Hinata as she opened the door.

"What were you thinking!?" demanded Atobe but before he continued he peered into the room to see that it was her who was lying on the bed but Niou. "What happened?"

"We were attacked," Hinata explained with a shrug and sat down beside the semi-conscious silver haired trickster. "Three maybe four men. With guns I might add." She maintained a cheerful and friendly tone but anyone could tell she was upset. "Why I don't know though, maybe one of those crazy people hired them."

"Are you okay?" asked Ootori. Hinata held up her arm displaying the tight bandage around her forearm.

"I fell," she answered. "Not even during the attack either."

Within minutes of their arrival those from Rikkai quickly entered the room, first Marui, Kuwahara and Kirihara who tortured Niou relentlessly followed by Yagyuu, Sanada and Yanagi who carried a get well card from Yukimura. Throughout the entire visit Sanada and Atobe exchanged dirty glances.

"You look like crap man," remarked Marui as the morphine began to wear off.

"Uhhhmuwa," replied Niou.

"I think he said I feel like crap," translated Kuwahara.

"Shut up," muttered Niou. "My head hurts and there is this ringing in my ear."

"Sure it wasn't there before?" asked Hinata. "You okay?"

"There's this itch at the side of my nose and it is KILLING me, Hinata, would you?" begged Niou.

"Which?" she asked leaning closer.

"Right, my right," before Hinata could reach out Ootori had already scratched the side of his nose for him with the stem of a flower from the vase beside him.

"Better?" asked Hinata.

"Yeah, thanks," replied Niou who hadn't noticed it wasn't Hinata.

"So! So! What happened?"

"We were at the tennis courts," began Hinata. "Played a while, went to buy lunch, got shot at and a guy had a knife to my throat."

"Wow!" Kirihara's eyes were wide.

"You were shot at?" remarked Yagyuu in disbelief.

"There's a police report and everything," said Niou sensing his doubt. "Still don't know why though."

"Maybe he thought we were someone else," guessed Hinata. "You know what, I'm going to get a drink, want to come Atobe?" the look in her eye clearly said he wasn't to refuse.

"S-sure." As the two left Hinata could hear Kirihara ask.

"Did you get shot? Is that why you're here?"

"I was grazed by a bullet."

"Bullshit! You cut yourself while trying to stab the other guy with the knife!" shouted Hinata triggering a chain of laughs.

* * *

"I'm sure the canteen is the other way," remarked Atobe as he followed Hinata.

"Yes, I know."

"Why the-" before he could finish Hinata had dragged him into the office of one of the doctors and locked the door shut behind her.

"Atobe," she said gently pushing him against the wall.

"Hin-"

"Shhh!" Hinata leaned closer to press her lips against him but before they touched Atobe looked away, Hinata smiled. "I knew it."

"What?"

"You know what! I'm sick and tired of all the games Atobe!" she said quietly so that no one would overhear. "I don't know what you want; I don't know what your game is. So just tell me what is it that you want?"

"What are you sayi-"

"Don't deny it and start talking," snapped Hinata taking the empty bottle of beer off the table. "Start talking."

"You're crazy!" Hinata laughed and smashed the glass against the wall.

"Took you this long to figure out?" she asked. Atobe looked into her eyes, she was desperate for answers.

"What happened?"

"We got lunch, they came at us from both sides, both had a gun and a knife, they said 'She's the one, the Atobe girl' and attacked us. One grabbed me the other hit Niou, we fought, Niou landed a few punches and I kicked him in the head and broke free from his hold before kicking him in the balls. We ran for what seemed like ages but they caught up, they had their guns out while we were focused at their hands another comes up behind be and holds a knife to my neck, I bite his wrist and grab his gun shooting him in the foot and his friend in the arm, when he fired back one hit Niou, it almost severed an artery in his left arm but missed. They ran and during the chaos I dropped my phone and someone used it to call 911. Your turn."

Atobe looked down at her, she was scared, confused and knew where to find answer, if it was him he would probably had almost crossed the fine line towards insanity as well. He considered lying, but he knew it wouldn't work.

"A few years ago, there was this little boy," said Atobe quietly. "He had a sister, and in the horrid world she was the only one who he treasured, his parents loved him and he loved them, but they were always gone. This sister meant the world to him. One day, it was hot outside so the two decided to go for a swim, but when he went back inside to get his sunglasses she had fallen into the deep end. The maids were gossiping and the butler was fixing drinks, when the brother finally found them and came out he couldn't see her anywhere, he ran back inside and cried out her name but he couldn't find her. Finally, he decided to check outside again and spotted her in the water; he jumped in after her and dragged her to out. The butler performed CPR and the maids called the ambulance but by then she was gone…forever." Atobe paused, his voice was breaking and his eyes were watering. "That same day, another girl's heart gave out, they were the same age even the same blood type but her parents refused to give the other girl the heart transplant she needed to survive.

"The little boy went outside to cry, to be sad for his sister's death, in front of all those people he couldn't do so, but while he was outside he met a girl about a year younger than him, they talked for ages about everything from tennis to sea food. She was on a drip and had a needle in her arm but she was so full of life and joy, he quickly fell in love with her smile. The little boy went to his parents and asked for them to give her his sister's heart. They didn't agree at first but after seeing her and how beautiful she would become, after much discussion an agreement was reached, in exchange for the transplant when she turned 18 she would marry the little boy. The girl's father didn't want to agree but he had no other choice, such a match for a heart was almost impossible to come by, she could live an almost normal life.

"Years past and the boy moved to England thinking she had long forgotten about him but he never forgot about her, when he transferred to Hyotei Gakuen he was surprised to see her there in his third and last year, she didn't remember him, but he recognised her. One day during dinner the boy accidently told his parents that he had once again met the girl, world quickly spread about the boy's fiancé making her a target for kidnappers, him telling the whole school they were dating didn't help." Hinata stood there not saying a single word. "But he later came to realise as he watched her, he really does love her. She was, from the day they met to even now, the one most important to him."

"You're screwing with me aren't you?" asked Hinata Atobe shook his head. "There is no way, my father would never…"

"You have," Atobe pointed at her chest. "My little sister's heart, inside you." Hinata shook her no head.

"No, that can't be, no…"

"Your blood type is AB the same as my sister, at the time you two were almost the exact same size, because my parents had delayed the transplant, there was little time so a heart already suited to a child's body required no alterations and could be transplanted immediately. At 7:00pm at night, the operation went for 12 hours. Hinata, I know these things because I was there, the entire time, I was outside."

Silence passed over as Hinata recollected that day.

"That, that day," said Hinata at last finding her voice. "My father was crying, I never knew why, were they crying with joy? They had found a match the moment I entered the hospital, were they tears of joy? Now that I look back my father had said 'Forgive me' over and over again, I had always wondered why…" She dropped the bottle. "Now I know, they sold me, they sold me-"

"No!" said Atobe. "They didn't want to, my mother was kidding when she suggest it but you father was desperate to save your life! Hinata! Listen to me!" but she didn't she couldn't hear him. She turned around and ran.

* * *

"Hinata, what are you doing sulking in here?" demanded Sanada entering Hinata's hospital room.

"Sanada-senpai…guess what, I'm engaged," replied Hinata with false joy.

_**4 hours earlier…**_

"_You know what?" remarked Niou as he laid on Hinata's hospital bed while she changed in the bathroom. "This bed is quite sturdy; the walls aren't all that thin." Hinata exited the bathroom wearing a pair of black shorts and her over sized Hyotei tennis club shirt (Her brother was careful to let her bring only minimal clothes minimizing her chances of sneaking out, he forgot to factor in Niou). She walked towards him and leaned over._

"_I'm not that easy," she whispered in his ear._

"_Well I am," replied Niou, Hinata laughed as she rolled her eyes, Niou wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her to the bed. "If we keep quiet no one will know," he whispered back as he fiddled with the buttons of her shirt. "Please?"_

"_What makes you think I'll stay quiet?" she remarked catching Niou by surprise, pushing him aside she stood up while he continued to ponder what she said. "Shall we go?" she asked as she fixed a thing black belt around her waist so her shirt didn't fly up whenever she ran or jumped. _

"_You sure this is a good idea?" asked Niou for once careful._

"_I've been stuck here in the same room for days, I need air, I need sun, otherwise I'll shrivel up and die like Onii-chan's pot plant, in fact, I'm more charming than a pot plant," she answered. Niou laughed and stood up._

"_I heard there was a street tennis court nearby, it's still early so we'll be alone, and you can work on your Hinata zone without being laughed at." Hinata elbowed him gently._

"_Sounds good."_

**Ta Daa!!! See that coming?**


	23. Chapter 23

**Chapter 23**

_Hinata sat on the bench watching her hand as she flicked her wrist, somehow she just couldn't get the motion right, no matter how much she tried the ball for some reason instead of moving towards her kept moving away._

"_Here," said Niou pressing a cold can of ponta against her cheek. "Break time."_

"_Thanks," she said quietly opening the can and taking a long gulp._

"_What's up? You're all depressed." Hinata sighed. "See just like that."_

"_Why?" she asked Niou. "I just can't get the motion right; the ball for some reason hates me! I can make it move and all but it's like it doesn't want to move towards me! Is it the ball? Do all the tennis balls hate me? Did I do something to offend the god of tennis bal…wait, I stepped on one by accident a few weeks back. Is that why?" she asked, Niou laughed as he sat down beside her and drank from his can._

"_You must be tired because the ways you're taking you're talking, a tennis ball has feelings," he laughed._

"_Give me another explanation then!" demanded Hinata._

"_Maybe you're just trying to hard," suggested Niou. Hinata eyes widened at his words and she threw the remaining content of her drink at him. "Hey! The hell was that for?!" he asked but his anger subsided when he noticed the tears forming at the corners of Hinata's eyes. "Hey, you okay?"_

"_What am I suppose to do then?" she asked quietly holding back her tears. "I can't play tennis if I can't do this! Niou! What do I do?"_

"_Hinata-" he began._

"_I don't have anything else Niou, if I can't play, I don't know what I-I'll…" she broke into tears._

"_Hiina," Niou wrapped his arms around soaking her shirt in ponta as well. "It'll be okay, you'll find a way, we'll find a way."_

"_Thank you," she replied, Niou placed a hand on her cheek and lifted her face to kiss her. "You never cease to amaze me."_

"_How so?"_

"_Even when I'm vulnerable, you never stop to take advantage of every situation."_

"_Of course, that is why you love me."_

"_Maybe…if it is I'm in for a ride."_

_* * *_

"_I think that was orange chicken not tangerine chicken," said Niou as he and Hinata left the restaurant._

"_Chicken is chicken," she replied._

"_No Tangerines and Oranges are quite different," he said._

"_Oranges, apples, strawberries, tangerines, fruit, fruit and more fruit," she answered suddenly he tightened his hold on her. "What's wrong?" she asked quietly._

"_Shh," said Niou his eyes looking around. "I think we're being followed."_

"_What? How would you- wait never mind," replied Hinata. She looked around; sure enough she recognised several faces in the crowd from a few streets back. "Maybe it's just a coincidence."_

"_Doubt it," replied Niou. _

"_But they won't do anything in a public place like this will they?" she asked._

"_In a crowd like this people have trouble finding their way to where they want to go let alone what other people are doing," he answered. "Shit, there, five maybe six of them."_

"_Bus," said Hinata nudging with her chin to the public transport. _

"_Yeah, they probably can't follo-" but before he could finish his sentence they began to circle them._

"_She the one?" asked one of them as they circled around them._

"_She's the one, the Atobe girl," answered his companion. "Keep quiet and come with us and we won't hurt him girl."_

"_Don't go," said Niou not letting go of her hand._

"_He has a bloody gun," she whispered back but Niou did not loosen his grip. "Niou!"_

"_It's MasahaRUN!" exclaimed Niou breaking into a sprint with Hinata close behind him._

"_What's the plan?"_

"_Just keep running," he replied as they turned the corner, there were fewer people and a wider space. "Shit!" exclaimed Niou when he spotted another two men dressed in black suits coming towards them in the opposite direction. "Turn!" He shouted turning 180 degrees but turned back when he saw those who confronted them first. "We're surrounded!"_

"_No shit Sherlock!" replied Hinata stopping and looking around but before she could react one of them grabbed her and held her by wrapping his arms around her. "Crap!"_

"_Hina!" Niou dodged a punch and kicked him in the stomach knocking the wind out of him. "Damn it." Hinata struggled before giving up and kicking her leg as high as she could, hitting the man behind her in the head, taking the moment of surprise she knocked away his arms._

"_Jerk," she muttered punching him in an upwards motion just under his jaw and kicking him between the legs. Hinata turned to see Niou dodging two of them, she wacked one as hard as she could at the back of the neck knocking him unconscious while Niou punched the other in the face smashing his nose. "Let's go!" she exclaimed grabbing Niou's wrist and running. "Who did you offend this time?" she asked._

"_Umm…no one actually," he answered. "Not enough to trigger this, but aren't they after you? The enemies you make are more suited to this stuff." Hinata though about what he said._

"_True," she agreed. "But sti-" before she could finish a man grabbed her and held a knife to her throat. _

"_Okay, play times over," he said._

"_You have bad breath," muttered Hinata, Niou froze not knowing what to do._

"_Shut up!"_

"_Hello boy," said another pointing his gun at Niou's head. "Looks like the cat finally caught the mouse."_

"_No more running," said the first. "You miss, are coming with us."_

"_Why?" she asked._

"_Your existence is a problem to my mistress," he answered. "After all, blood is thicker than water."_

"_What are you talking about?" asked Hinata before biting down on his hand causing him to drop the knife, she grabbed his gun and shot him in the foot and the other in the arm, he grabbed his gun and fired back, Hinata gasped when she saw it hit Niou in the arm. "Masaharu!"_

"_I'm fine," he answered. "It nicked me." Hinata raised the gun and fired it at the stranger hitting him in the shoulder and knee._

"_Damn it," he cursed grabbing his companion and running._

"_You're bleeding!" exclaimed Hinata taking off her Hyotei jersey and using it to stop the bleeding._

"_I'm fine," he replied raising his right arm and wiping the tears from Hinata's cheeks. "You called me Masaharu."_

* * *

Sanada walked through the gates of Hyotei gakuen immediately feeling out of place.

"Excuse me," he asked a female in hyotei uniform.

"Yes?" she asked turning red.

"Where are the tennis courts?" he asked.

"T-that way," she answered pointing.

"Thank you," he replied making his way towards the said direction, the moment his back was turned he heard a female squeal. As expected of Hyotei, even after school there were hundreds of students practicing at the tennis courts, he admired their numbers but not their skill.

"Oi, isn't that," he could hear one whispered.

"Oh my god! It's Sanada Geniichiro!"

"The Emperor!"

"Sanada!"

"It's the Emperor Sanada."

But the Rikkai Vice-captain ignored them scanning the crowd searching.

"Oi! Yuushi," said Mukahi nudging to the tall figure looking down at the courts. "Isn't that?"

"It is," replied the genius. "What's he doing here?"

"Ootori Choutaro, I resume," said Sanada walking towards the silver haired regular.

"Yes?" asked Ootori politely.

"What are you doing here Sanada?" asked Atobe.

"That is none of your concern," replied the Emperor.

"Your talking to one of my team mates, I believe it is my concern," said the King.

"So you can take care of a team of 200 but when it comes to one female your no better than the next male," noted Sanada.

"What are you suggesting?"

"I'm calling you incompetent and a fool," replied Sanada. "Since Hinata has transferred her, she been to the hospital, had her first attack in almost half a year and now is unable toplay tennis. As her former senpai and her mentor how do you think I feel?"

"Ohh, he got him there," said Mukahi quietly.

"Che! Fine, whatever, I admit I haven't been the best at keeping an eye out for her-" admitted Atobe.

"Wow, Atobe just admitted he was wrong!" exclaimed Mukahi.

"-do what you please," with that Atobe turned and left.

"Is there something you need from me?" asked Ootori.

"Yes, actually, I was wondering if you could take me to Hinata's hospital room, they recently transferred her isn't that right?"

"Yes, but couldn't you have asked Yagyuu-san or Niou-san?"

"I could, but I don't want them to know I'm making this visit."

"Huh? Why?"

* * *

Sanada opened the hospital door without even knocking.

"Sanada-senpai?" asked Hinata in a bewildered voice. "What a surprise." She was a mess, the blinds were closed and her hair was a mess, there were dark circles under her eyes and she was eating ice cream directly out of the tub and watching an American drama called NCIS.

"What are you doing?" demanded Sanada opening the windows and turning off the TV. "Do you even understand what they're saying?"

"It had subtitles!"

"Alright! It's been a week! You told me Atobe had invited you to a party; its happening tonight isn't it? Well go! Get out of this room! You're a complete mess!" Hinata put down the tub and spoon and glared at him.

"Who the hell do you think you are?" she demanded. "Get out!"

"How dare you talk back to me!" shouted Sanada. "You whining little wretch! You've had your fun complaining and throwing fits! Now it's time to stand back up!"

"Let me whin! Let me complain! I've had enough! Of you! Of tennis! I've had it!"

"Are you giving up?! The Hinata I know would never give up!"

"Well she's gone! She left along with my determination and patience! Now leave!"

"Leave to let you drown in your self pity and guilt!? I think not! Stand up! Shower! And get dressed!"

"Let me drown then!" shouted Hinata. Sanada clenched his jaw, his raised his hand and slapped her across the cheek, but instead of yelling like he expected her to she turned the other cheek. "Aren't you going to hit me again?" she asked. "I've had enough! I've had enough of everyone! Of everything!"

She was broken, perhaps beyond compare.

"No," he answered pulling away Hinata's bed sheets and throwing them across the room. "Up! You are engaged, not married. Have hope."

"No there isn't!" she replied throwing her pillow at him. "There isn't any hope," she said in a softer voice.

"Hinata, talk, if you don't say anything, how can I help you?" asked Sanada sitting beside her.

"What can you do?" she asked him. "Hell what am I going to do? I can't just take out my heart and return it to them, can I? I had tennis, whenever things were hard I still had tennis, now? I don't even have that anymore, so what do I do Sanada-senpai? I've fallen into a well, and this time, there's nothing to hold onto, nothing to cling to, nothing to trust or rely on."

"You have me, you have your brother, you have your father, you even have Niou," said Sanada.

"But how long will that last?" she asked. "Do you really think Niou and I will live happily ever after? Do you really think Niou will still be with me when I'm in college let alone when I'm old and grey?"

"You have a point," admitted Sanada. "Niou's record with woman may not be great, but he loves you, you know he does."

"I do, and I love him, but he's scared of commitment," said Hinata. "He's the type of person who doesn't like to be tied down."

"So you'll think he'll cheat on you?"

"It's Niou, it's like guessing wether or not that a watermelon has seeds or not, I don't want to doubt him but, well, it's Niou."

Sanada sighed. "Listen to me; you have me, not only Niou but me, Yukimura, Marui, Kirihara, Jackal and Yanagi-"

"And me," remarked Ootori speaking for the first time in a while.

"You see? We're all here for you."

"I know," replied Hinata. "I know, but, it's different, right now, I hate you, all of you, every time I see you it reminds me that I can't play tennis, every time I see you all smile it reminds me I can't play tennis. I hate this feeling, I love you, I love all of you but, I can't help it. I want to run, I want to swing my racket and serve a tennis ball, but I can't, and every time I see you I remember that."

"You fool," Sanada sighed and hugged her. "It'll be fine, everything will be fine."

_It won't, no matter how I much I lie to myself, everything won't be fine…_

* * *

Atobe stood by the glass door looking out the 50th floor window out towards the city, he sighed, there was no way she would come, was there?

"You look depressed," said a familiar voice, Atobe looked up see Shishido he too dressed in a suit. "If it's her you're looking for she's right there," he added nudging to the door. Silence fell as she entered, dressed in a beautiful black dress with magenta and gold brocade and her hair up in a bun with stunning gold ornaments which matched her necklace, earrings and bracelet.

"Wow," breathed Atobe as she walked down the stairs. Ootori led her down the stairs, he himself dressed in a grey suit, a pang of anger erupted in his chest when he noticed how strong a grip Hinata had on his forearm before noticing she was having trouble balancing in her delicate looking stiletto heels. He smiled and walked towards them. "Hinata, you look lovely." She smiled back, he extended his arm taking the place as the human walking stick from Ootori.

"Thank you," she answered accidently on purpose stepping on his foot and digging her heel into his foot. Still smiling sweetly she replied. "We're not done taking."

"Why did you do that?" asked Atobe maintaining his own smile.

"Now you know how my feet feel right now."

"Beauty is pain."

"Very much so, and I'll share it with you, if I need to suffer to satisfy your little whim, so must you."


	24. Chapter 24

**Chapter 24**

Sweat trickled down Atobe's forehead as he felt Hinata's cold hand grip onto his forearm. "Your pressing too hard," he said quietly.

"And whose fault is that?" she asked back. "Because of you I can barely move." There a slight strain in her voice as she moved, her very strong antiperspirant was being stretched to its limits.

"But must you dig your nails into me skin?" demanded Atobe as he felt Hinata's recently manicure nails dig through his blazer and shirt to his skin.

"I told you before, if I must suffer, so must you," she replied quietly maintaining a polite smile on her face as the two walked through the crowd. "I hate these shoes," she whimpered. "I hate them! I hate them! I hate them!"

"They're not all that high," answered Atobe. Hinata eye's alone glared at him.

"They're almost fifteen centimetres!" she said. "That's like almost six inches!"

"So? I've seen higher."

"Really? I'd think your eyes would be elsewhere," replied Hinata.

"Oww, I think you just hurt my feelings."

"Ha, good one, feelings." Atobe met her gaze and rolled his eyes while Hinata maintained a polite smirk on her face and turned his head to look away. "Hey, I was kidding, I know your not really the frigid ice monkey king with a ego the size of the iceberg that sank titanic…wait, your not?"

"That's not it," replied Atobe still looking out the window.

"Okay, what then?"

"Avoid eye contact," he said quietly. "My father is trying to make eye contact and look for an excuse to come over."

"Huh?" Hinata turned around and meet the eyes of a male in his late thirties.

"What have you done?" demanded Atobe, Hinata grinned. "You bitch, you did that on purpose!"

"Yes I did, don't you just love me?" she smirked.

"Uh no," sighed Atobe as the man and a Korean woman walked over.

"I've been looking all over for you Keigo," he said, dressed in a black suit, his brown hair (A/N: In the manga Atobe has brown hair and blue eyes) possessed a grey lock making him appear older, aside from the shallow crow's feet and longer bangs he was identical to Atobe.

"Yes, I know, I'm sorry," apologised the King. "It seems we just kept missing each other."

"Well, aren't you going to introduce us?" asked the tall woman beside him, Atobe's mother appeared about thirty, flawless pale skin and chocolate brown eyes, her raven hair was tied up in a bun and she wore a flattering red dress.

"Hahaue, this is Yagyuu Hinata, Hinata this is my mother," said Atobe, his father coughed. "And that one there is my father, father Hinata."

"Hello, it's a pleasure to meet you," said Hinata with a small bow but Atobe's mother just stared at her. "Is something wrong?"

"No! Nothings wrong, no, you just, no nothing," she repeated. "I was kidding you know, about the engagement thing, but your father took it seriously and one thing led to another and another led to signing a document." Hinata turned to look at Atobe.

"Document?"

"Just a bit of paper saying that my parent's have legal custody of you in case your father resists," explained Atobe.

"Oh!" Hinata subtly stabbed his foot with her heel once more. They spent a first half hour talking about everything from her name and it's meaning and which colours flattered Hinata the most, strange enough, Atobe's mother had been paying quite a lot of attention to her.

"No, I had my first period before I had intercourse," said Hinata slightly uncomfortable.

"Oh, so you're not a virgin?" asked his mother with judging eyes.

"No, actually, I'm not."

"Oh! Good to know, Keigo-kun you?"

"HAHAUE!"

"Sorry," she whispered to Hinata. "That's a yes." She suppressed the urge to laugh, but though out their conversation Atobe's mother's eyes not once left Hinata for more than a few seconds. Notcing her increasing discomfort Atobe's father grabbed his wife by the arm and dragged her away saying.

"I've got to mingle but we'll be back and she, I mean we, want to hear all about you two," he said with a wink.

"Well he's nice," remarked Hinata with a smile. "For some reason I think your Mother hates me, I mean, she didn't stop starring at me."

"Oh! Well, that's just because I asked her if I could borrow her necklace for you to wear," he lied quickly pointing to the white gold locket around her neck with what seemed to be several carats of diamonds. "It must be a surprise to actually see it on someone else."

"Oh!" Hinata nodded her head in understanding. "Not really actually."

Atobe shrugged and said. "Women."

"True." Her answer surprised him.

"I've noticed that most of your friends are male, no correction, the only female name on your speed dial is mom."

"Mom isn't a name."

"Still the only female."

Hinata shrugged. "My parents are divorced, I grew up watching women after women enter and leave my dad's room, so I've come to disrespect and dislike woman in general. No, that's sexist; I grew up with my mom across the large sea between here and Korea, so basically it was just my dad, brother and sometimes Niou. I don't get woman, that and men are simple minded, easy to understand, don't hold grudges and when you mock them the responses are funnier-"

"Fascinating as this is, my cousin is making his way towards us so lets hide please," said Atobe leading her to the balcony where they were now alone except for a table of champagne with strawberries inside. "Continue," he said once the tinted glass door was closed.

"And the term sissy is funner than the term slut," finished Hinata.

"Is funner a word?"

"Don't know."

Atobe peered through the glass and watched as a male in his late teens left the room. "Good we can go back in."

"Why are we hiding?" asked Hinata as Atobe reached for the doorknob.

"Last time I saw him I slammed a tennis ball into his face and broke his nose."

"I though you'd be proud of that."

"I am, I just have a hard time keeping a straight face when he's nearby, I broke his nose and he had to have plastic surgery, the once large is now a button," Atobe explained, Hinata grinned. "Uh oh."

"What?"

"The door won't open."

**A/N: Short chapter I know but I have a chemistry exam so… sorry if there are any mistakes.**


	25. Chapter 25

**Chapter 25**

"_Hiiinaaa!"_ Niou's voice echoed in her ears, she was scared, terrified, angry and above all else, stuck on a balcony with Atobe Keigo, her… fiancé.

"How long have we been up here?" she asked him, they had argued for almost half an hour when they realised the door was locked, they'd snapped at each other for at least another.

"Not all that long," he answered, despite the situation he found himself starring out at the beautiful view the balcony displayed, it was quiet, the buzzing lights below seemed so far away, reality, seemed so far away. There was another long silence; Hinata found herself picking at the black nail polish on her nails.

"Do you hate us?" asked Atobe quietly, Hinata didn't answer. "Do you hate my family for putting you in this situation? Do you hate my mother for suggesting it?" Hinata still didn't reply. "Do you hate me?"

Her silence wasn't anger, she just didn't want to shout every single thing that was on her mind like she'd done for the past few days, every horrid thought, every mean comment and every emotion she felt, she threw them at those around her. Words she didn't mean, thoughts she never really intended to say, she'd hurt those she loved deeply.

"No," she answered at last. "I don't hate your family or you… but I'm angry, at first," she paused, once again careful to express what she truly wanted to say. "At first I though they had no right, my father had no right to sell me like that, my brother had no right not to tell me, you mother had no right to request such a thing from my father and your family had no right to desire such a thing…"

Hinata stood up and walked towards him. "But, my father didn't sell me, he loved- loves me, he did all he could to protect me…to save my life, it was then I realised, I have no right to be angry, I'm alive, I'm living a close to normal life I can and not because of my heart…" She looked Atobe in the eyes. "I guess a thank you is in order," she told me.

"What happened to the crazy person I used to know?" he asked. She laughed lightly.

"She's still around, but she grew up and realised it was time she stopped acting spoilt," Hinata answered. Leaning closer she pulled on Atobe's tie and kissed him on the cheek. "Thank you," she said.

Atobe starred at her, his gaze unwavering, to the point of confusing Hinata. "What?" she asked, he leaned closer, surprised Hinata took a step back, but forgetting she was wearing heels she slipping and began to fall backwards. Atobe quickly caught her and steadied her, leaning closer he kissed her gently.

After the moment of surprise passed and Hinata regained her senses she pushed him back. "What are you doing?" she demanded. Atobe ignored her.

"Nothing," he said to himself.

"What?"

"I mean I felt nothing," he explained. "Strange," he told her. "Aside from the fact you froze, it was a decent kiss, but nothing."

"I've got something, I think I might hurl," answered Hinata causing him to laugh. "It was like…like I kissed Sanada or my brother or even Yukimura…wait, I've kissed Yukimura before…"

"You kissed that pretty boy monster?"

"That not very-" Hinata trailed off, he'd just described the Child of God perfectly. "A while back, before he and Sanada discovered that they both were unrequitedly in love with each other."

"What happened?" asked Atobe. Hinata shrugged.

"One sided feelings on both side," she answered. "I guess we used each other as subs…although how am I a sub for Sanada I have no clue…"

"So a double sacrifice then?" Hinata looked up at him and frowned.

"I have no idea what you're implying but the moment you said that I thought of bloodied crosses and garlic." Atobe laughed again. "Really? Nothing?" she asked him breaking the minute long silence. "Not that I care about any of those feeling but it hurts my pride, even if I was frozen solid with shock, disgust and surprise, I consider myself to be a good kisser, at least that's what Niou tells me and since it's Niou I believe him."

"Nothing," repeated Atobe. For some reason Hinata felt pissed about this.

"Nothing?" she asked placing a hand on his shoulder.

"Nothing," he answered. Hinata took a step closer, her body **almost** touching him. Atobe swallowed.

"Nothing?" she asked again. Atobe felt his heart beat a little faster.

"Nothing," he answered, struggling to compose him voice. Her pride still a little hurt, she stood on the balls of her feet and whispered into his ear.

"Still nothing?" she asked, Atobe felt his face redden as he inhaled her perfume. Leaning closer he kissed her, this time it was different, for as long as he'd known her, whenever he looked at her, he saw his sister, he saw the little girl who he treasured more than anyone else. But his sister was nothing like Hinata, she was kind ad gentle while Hinata was the prickliest girl he'd ever met, she was scheming and adored mocking those around her including him, looking at her now, with her high pride and ego, he didn't see the sweet innocent little girl anymore, he saw someone who was almost a woman, someone not ten years old but less than a year younger than him, he'd always know he'd love her, but this time…

"Timeout," said Hinata pulling away. "I-I was just, I was just…you bruised my ego a bit when you…never mind. What's that about nothing?" she asked him, despite the situation, she was still mocking and teasing him. Atobe knew full well his cheeks were turning red. What was he doing? Despite the agreement he couldn't marry her, there was no way…was there? She loved Niou, it was obvious…but what was that? How could such a strong pull exists? What was he doing? What was he thinking? No, that was exactly it, he didn't think, he merely acted as his body dictated…

"I can practically see down the front of your dress," he replied, thinking on his feet. "I'm a man not a saint," he snapped at her. Hinata grinned and took a step back. "I think I found the crazy chick again," he said quietly. This time it was Hinata's turn to laugh.

"I'm glad, I was beginning to feel a little off with all the sickening sweet goodness inside me," she answered him with a small smile. Atobe couldn't look her in the eyes anymore.

"Do you…" Atobe inhaled and tried again. "Do you, love Niou?" he asked her.

"Yes, with all my heart," she answered. Atobe swallowed and bit down on his lip gently. The sound of an opening door behind them caught their attention.

"Oops," giggled a girl who looked slightly drunk, leaning against her was Shishido in a similar state. "Sorry," she said and the two stumbled away leaving the door opened.

Atobe and Hinata exchanged looks.

"I don't mean to sound…actually I really have no idea what the correct word is but um…" Hinata frowned. "No offence to him but umm, I was under the impression… well I kinda thought Shishido-senpai, was well…you know, gay."

"Actually," replied Atobe. "I thought the same thing; maybe he's drunker than he looks."

"Maybe. Think she had anything to with it?"

"Maybe…scary thought, fan girls going around drugging the regulars its... what do you call it when the guy gets rufied?" asked Atobe.

"No idea, I think it's a history's first."

"Knowing our school probably not."


End file.
